White House names chief data scientist

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has named DJ Patil, PhD, as deputy chief technology officer for data policy and chief data scientist.

"We’ve begun to see an acceleration of the power of data to deliver value," wrote Megan Smith, U.S. chief technology officer wrote in a White House blog post announcing the position.

Patil previously was vice president of product at RelateIQ and also has held positions at LinkedIn, Greylock Partners, Skype, PayPal and eBay. He also has worked at the  Department of Defense, where he directed new efforts to bridge computational and social sciences in fields like social network analysis to help anticipate emerging threats to the United States.

As a doctoral student and faculty member at the University of Maryland, DJ used open datasets published by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make major improvements in numerical weather forecasting. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland College Park. Patil has authored a number of influential articles and books explaining the important current and potential applications of data science.

In his new role, Patil will help shape policies and practices to help the U.S. remain a leader in technology and innovation, foster partnerships to help responsibly maximize the nation’s return on its investment in data, and help to recruit and retain the best minds in data science to join us in serving the public, according to Smith's post. He also will work on the administration’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which focuses on utilizing advances in data and healthcare to provide clinicians with new tools, knowledge and therapies to select which treatments will work best for which patients, while protecting patient privacy.