Dr. DJ Patil

Dr. Patil’s career has spanned a wide variety of industries, from corporate data science, to academia, to government. As a data scientist, Dr. Patil has held prominent roles as the lead of product teams at RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce), a founding board member for Crisis Text Line (which uses technology to provide on-demand mental health and crisis support), and a member of the venture firm Greylock Partners. He has also applied his data science expertise to a variety of other business segments, from healthcare, where he worked on the development of programs such as the Precision Medicine Initiative and Cancer Moonshot; to criminal justice, where he worked to establish reforms such as Data-Driven Justice and Police Data Initiatives that now cover more than 94 million Americans. He currently leads data efforts at Devoted Health as their Chief Data Scientist and is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Outside of private industry, Dr. Patil has served as a member of the faculty at the University of Maryland, where his research focused on nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory. Dr. Patil has also been active in national security, both directing new efforts to leverage social network analysis and computational science to anticipate emerging threats to the U.S; and co-chairing a major review of U.S. efforts to prevent bioweapons proliferation in Central Asia. His work for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) earned him a Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest honor the DoD can bestow upon a civilian. In 2014, Dr. Patil was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, and is currently a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He also holds the distinction of having been appointed by President Obama to be the United States’ first Chief Data Scientist, a job that led to the establishment of nearly 40 additional Chief Data Officer roles across the federal government.