Professionals in these fields might look at populations and their interactions and model them as systems of differential equations that can be used to model diseases in human populations (i.e. the spread of infection under various immunization protocols). Other applications in these fields include the management of ocean fisheries and the study of insect population growth, spread, and reaction to insecticides.

Data mining allows the discovery of patterns and previously unknown information in large data sets. Emerging career opportunities can be found in applications of data mining in fields such as security, forensics, e-commerce, bioinformatics and genomics, astrophysics, medicine, and chemical and electrical engineering.

The Fields Institute in Toronto describes computer animation as “an eclectic science that uniquely combines mathematics, computer science, fine art, classical animation, physics, biomechanics, and anatomy, to name but a few fields. Algorithms for computer animation rely heavily on techniques from scientific computation, statistics, signal processing, linear algebra, control theory, and computational geometry.” With a diverse and exciting set of applications to such areas as medical diagnostics, entertainment (film, television, and video games), and fine arts (dancing, sculpture, painting), there are many avenues and career opportunities to explore.

Climatology depends on simulating the component forces that drive the climate, for example, ocean circulation and heat exchange between land, air, and ocean. It requires very sophisticated models based on physical principles, expressed as complex partial differential equations. These are implemented in very large-scale numerical codes on high-performance computers, and use data from observations of satellites, ocean buoys, and other monitoring equipment to drive the solutions.

Did you know…

• Teachers in the United States rate their lives better than all other occupation groups, trailing only physicians.
• Mid-career teacher salaries range between $60,000 and $100,000.
• Most teaching jobs have better retirement benefits than other jobs you can get with the same degree.
• There are student loan forgiveness programs and scholarships for math and science teachers.
• You can get a job almost anywhere in the U.S. or abroad as a science or math teacher.
• Behind every advance in medicine or technology is a teacher who left a lasting impression.

The insurance industry can't function without actuaries. They calculate their costs and determine the premiums for policyholders; and while they don't forecast the weather, we can tell them how much they can expect to pay in claims after the next Florida hurricane. Private corporations rely on their risk evaluation to frame their strategic management decisions. And because their judgment is highly valued, our career paths often lead to upper management and executive positions. They're also employed as consultants. Whether they're part of a nationwide firm or an independent one-person practice, they help companies design pension and benefit plans, evaluate assets and liabilities, and stare down risk–all alongside top executives. They work for the government too, helping manage its programs and overseeing public companies to ensure compliance with regulatory laws.

• Help promote human rights by estimating the number of refugees or casualties of war in specific conflicts, such as the civil war in Syria or the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
• Work with data that determines everything from distribution of Congressional seats by state to how federal funds are allocated to local and state governments.
• Help fire departments and other emergency responders improve municipal services by analyzing data on incidents and modeling response times.
• Use data to create demographic profiles of voters for grassroots outreach and test messages in debates, speeches and ads.

• Work with other scientists to protect and increase populations of endangered species at zoos, research institutes or nonprofits.
• Help evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new treatment intervention, and determine whether a new treatment intervention has the benefits that have been proposed.
• Help prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health through policy and programs that are informed by statistical methods.