The White House has appointed Dr. DJ Patil as the U.S. government’s first chief data scientist and as deputy chief technology officer for data policy.
Dr. Patil will be responsible for helping the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop innovation policies and strategies as well as promote collaborative projects in data science and technology, Federal Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith said in a blog post published Wednesday.
He will also support the White House’s Precision Medicine Initiative, which aims to provide healthcare providers the tools they need to deliver personalized care and medical information, Smith writes.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Patil served as vice president for product at enterprise software firm RelateIQ and worked for LinkedIn, Greylock Partners, Skype, PayPal and eBay.
He has authored multiple data science publications and is a former University of Maryland faculty member.
He also worked for the Defense Department, where he led the agency’s efforts to analyze social networks in a bid to predict potential national security threats.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California in San Diego and a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland in College Park.
