Scala has gained prominence in the data science community due to the rapid growth of Spark. Functional languages are well-suited to data science work so, if you find Scala productive, you might be interested in looking at F#. There’s a project devoted to promoting F# as an effective data science language—FsLab.

Those with Scala experience who wish to dip a toe into the F# waters should have a look a Alfonso Garcia-Carot’s F# for Scala Developers presentation.

He even used F# to create the presentation. That’s dedication.