Summary
Iona Buchanan is a Senior Data Scientist based in Ottawa with eight years of experience applying mathematical rigor and machine learning to real-world problems, currently focusing on cybersecurity at Shopify. She holds an Honours BSc in Mathematics with a Computer Science minor from the University of Ottawa and has a background spanning government, startups, and enterprise environments. Her work blends statistical modeling, manifold and network analysis, and productionized predictive analytics—ranging from threat detection to inventory forecasting. At Field Effect and earlier at the Government of Canada she built models for topic/speech-to-text, prioritization, and network analysis, and she has experience shipping data-driven web interfaces and training materials. Notably, she moved from research in number and graph theory into applied data science, bringing a strong theoretical perspective to practical engineering problems. Colleagues describe her as a mathematically curious practitioner who turns complex modelling ideas into maintainable, production-ready solutions.
8 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Ontario Secondary School Diploma, Ontario Secondary School Diploma at Lisgar Collegiate Institute
Honours BSc Mathematics with minor in Computer Science, Honours BSc Mathematics with minor in Computer Science at University of Ottawa
English, French