Travis Oliphant

Travis Oliphant is an American data scientist, software developer, and entrepreneur known for his contributions to the Python scientific computing ecosystem. He is the primary creator of Numpy, a foundational package for numerical computation in Python, and a founding contributor to SciPy, which together form the bedrock on which modern AI and machine learning development was built. Oliphant is also a co-founder of NumFOCUS, a 501 nonprofit charity in the United States that supports open-source scientific software. He is also a founder of several technology companies, including Anaconda, , and .

Early life and education

Oliphant earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in mathematics and electrical engineering from Brigham Young University. He later completed a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the Mayo Clinic, where his research focused on medical imaging and signal processing.

Academic career

From 2001 to 2007, Oliphant served as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University. During his tenure, he directed the Biomedical Imaging Lab, where his research centered on scanning impedance imaging and other computational imaging techniques.

Contributions to open source

NumPy and SciPy

In 2005, Oliphant created NumPy, which unified earlier numerical libraries such as and numarray. NumPy has since become a core component of the Python ecosystem, widely used in scientific computing, machine learning, and data science. He also contributed to the development of SciPy, expanding Python's capabilities for applied mathematics, signal processing, and statistical analysis.

NumFOCUS

In 2012, Oliphant co-founded , a nonprofit that supports the open-source scientific computing community. He remains active on its advisory board. In 2012, he co-founded Continuum Analytics, where he served as CEO until 2017. The company developed the Anaconda distribution, a widely used platform for managing Python environments and data science tools.
Under Oliphant's leadership, Continuum Analytics raised $24 million in Series A funding in 2015 and received funding from DARPA to develop GPU-accelerated extensions to Python for high-performance computing.

Career

Enthought and Anaconda

From 2007 to 2011, Oliphant was president of Enthought, a scientific computing company. In 2012, he co-founded Continuum Analytics, where he served as CEO until 2017. The company developed the , a widely used platform for managing Python environments and data science tools.

Quansight and OpenTeams

After departing Anaconda in 2017, Oliphant founded , a services and consulting firm focused on supporting open source technologies in enterprise settings. In 2019, he launched , a platform aimed at helping companies build and manage open-source-based AI infrastructure. As of 2025, he serves as its president. Oliphant serves on the Board of Directors of
In 2025, OpenTeams acquired the AI consulting division of Quansight, including its core engineering team. The two companies had operated as sister organizations since OpenTeams' inception. This acquisition was part of a strategic realignment: OpenTeams scaled its enterprise and government AI offerings, while Quansight restructured as a Public Benefit Corporation to focus on sustaining open-source communities. As part of the transition, former Quansight CTO joined OpenTeams as its new CTO..

Publications

: a comprehensive manual and reference guide for users of NumPy, widely used in academic and industry settings.
Honors and recognition

Oliphant has been recognized as a key contributor to the growth of the Python ecosystem in scientific computing. NumPy and SciPy are among the most cited tools in academic literature for data science and machine learning, and he has delivered keynote addresses at conferences such as SciPy and PyCon.
He spoke at the Centaurs AI Summit, Davos 2025 Edition.