By Thloni Mhango
The community of OR practitioners is blessed with some of the most innovative and trail-blazing female scientists! As we approach women's month in South Africa, we reflect and celebrate none other than our own Jess Rees; lead data scientist at Discovery currently specialising in the development of Large Language Models and their use in the insurance and financial services industry.
Jess (29) is no stranger to accolades, having graduated from the University of Pretoria with her Master in Big Data Science, and her undergraduate and honors in business science from the University of Cape Town; picking up Deans merit awards along the way and also completing her Certified Analytics Professional (CAPs) Exams. She has also taken on many leadership roles in her career both at Discovery and as an ORSSA EC member, driving innovation, responsible programming and AI, as well as mentoring future scientists.
That said, everyone who knows Jess, knows how much she enjoys a good evening of intellectual games, snacks and socialising with like minded people. She's got immense gratitude for all her prior mentors and school advisors and continues to be a great sounding board for colleagues and up and coming students alike. We also super proud of her recent nomination from the Mail and Guardian 200 Young South African award for 2024, under the category of "Technology and Innovation". We are routing for you Jess!
Editor's note: The full write up by The Mail & Guardian is available here.
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