A statistician can help a pharmaceutical firm decide whether a new drug helps premature babies grow up healthy. In an automobile company, a statistician might design experiments to estimate the failure time of an engine exposed to extreme weather conditions and to identify factors that lead to improved performance. In an chemical company, a statistician might determine what combination of several chemicals would lead to the best product. Actuaries answer questions about future risk, make pricing decisions, and formulate investment strategies. Some design insurance, financial, and pension plans and ensure that they are maintained on a sound financial basis.
Operations research includes the mathematics used by businesses to make managerial decisions.
Operations research analysts are problem solvers. They help a company with strategy, forecasting, resource allocation, facilities layout, inventory control, personnel schedules, and distribution systems. The best opportunities in this field require a master's degree. The faster computers run, the more problems are investigated by computer, and the greater the need to understand the mathematics behind massive computations. Mathematicians explore which problems can be solved by computer, how to compute solutions efficiently, and how to improve computers to solve virtually impossible problems like weather prediction.