I apologize :-/ I should have been more clear. What I was referring to was in a little more broader context than just Data Science or ML. Many of the Engineering and Math PhDs I work with typically use MATLAB or Mathematica.
At least in my university, most people really do use Python + C and Julia for many, many cases and MATLAB and such are used mostly in mechanical and civil engineering, some aero-astro (though a ton of people still use Python and C for embedded controllers), and Geophysics/Geophysical engineering (but, thanks to ML, people are switching over to Python as well).
I think even these fields are slowly switching to open versions of computing languages, I will say :)
The issue I see is with the undergraduate curriculum in many Universities. This is where I see the legacy use of MATLAB is really hurting the future generation of students. Many still don't know proper programming fundamentals because MATLAB really isn't set up to be a good starting point for programming in general. To me, MATLAB is a great tool IF you know how to program already.
Yes, and the government still needs COBOL programmers.
Going forward, I believe Python has far more momentum than either MATLAB or Mathematica. I think far more MATLAB and Mathematica users will learn Python than the other way around in the future, and far more new scientific programmers will learn Python than either of those.