United States’ First Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil Joins data.world as a Strategic Advisor

AUSTIN, Texas, March 06, 2018 -- data.world today announced that Dr. DJ Patil, a renowned mathematician who served under President Obama as the United States’ first Chief Data Scientist, has joined the data.world Board of Advisors. Dr. Patil’s expertise in public policy, data science, and security will be indispensable in guiding data.world as the company builds the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world.

“DJ Patil shares data.world’s vision that data should be easy to find, use, and share,” said Brett Hurt, CEO and Co-founder of data.world. “During his tenure as this country’s first Chief Data Scientist, DJ opened up access to important government data in order to maximize its impact on solving society’s most difficult problems. We’re honored to welcome DJ as a formal supporter of data.world and our mission, and we look forward to working alongside him to unleash data’s true potential to answer questions and solve problems.”

“Data not only needs to be accessible, it needs to be usable by teams and individuals across disciplines, roles, and skill sets,” said Dr. Patil. “data.world is doing the important work of breaking down the needless barriers that keep data and people disconnected. This brings more people and organizations into the fold so they can contribute meaningfully to, and benefit fully from, data as a resource.”

Dr. Patil, who helped popularize the term “data science,” and co-coined “data scientist” as a job title, brings a long history of innovating new ways for companies, government agencies, universities, and other organizations to benefit from data. He was selected by President Barack Obama to be the first Chief Data Scientist of the United States. During his tenure from 2015 - 2017, Patil helped launch the White House’s Police Data Initiative as well as the White House's Data-Driven Justice Initiative, which collected data on police activities, and worked on the Precision Medicine Initiative and the Cancer Moonshot, to bring together data in novel ways to accelerate our science and develop tailored medical treatments.

Dr. Patil is also known for his efforts in National Security including establishing Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) and the Defense Digital Service. As recognition for these efforts, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter awarded Dr. Patil with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service which is the highest honor the department bestows on a civilian.

Prior to the White House, Dr. Patil led the product team at RelateIQ up until its acquisition by Salesforce, served as a founding board member at Crisis Text Line, and was “data scientist in residence” at Greylock Ventures. He played a critical role in establishing LinkedIn as a data-driven organization while serving as its Head of Data Products, Chief Scientist, and Chief Security Officer. Dr. Patil began his private sector career as resident research scientist and analytics director at eBay.

Dr. Patil previously served on the faculty at the University of Maryland where his research focused on nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory.

About data.world
data.world is the platform for modern data teamwork. It helps you tap into more of your team’s collective brainpower to achieve anything with data, faster. The Austin-based Public Benefit Corporation and Certified B Corporation® serves the enterprise, journalism, and public sector communities by speeding up data work and creating shared context to preserve and perpetuate essential project knowledge. Visit data.world and follow @datadotworld and facebook.com/datadotworld for more information.

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