Fairfax County, Virginia, United States
I'm experienced, observant, willing to work, and still learning.
I'm now 50% teaching and 50% research. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in data science, computational social science, and psychology. My teaching load is the same as tenure/tenure track faculty, 2+2. The other half of my time is research. I'm currently finishing a 3-year project as Principal Investigator on a grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to model the social impacts of nuclear detonations. That followed a 3-year basic research grant with DTRA to characterize the reaction of the population of a meg-city to a nuclear WMD event. I am also interested in advancing research in architectures of cognition, extending ACT-R beyond only the rational to include physiological, emotional, and social cognition.
Studying individual cognition and incorporating cognitive modeling into computational social science. Leading two projects as Principle Investigator: one for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) looking into how a population would react to a nuclear WMD event and the other is helping NASA specify beliefs and intents as part of its project management of autonomous systems. Previous projects have been developing a model of migration due to economic and safety concerns, modeling the origins of conflict and potential humanitarian emergencies in East Africa, and the social effects of climate change in the northernmost latitudes. Also contributing to the Center of Excellence in Neuroergnomics, Technology, and Cognition (CENTEC) at Mason. Teach a graduate-level course in the cognitive foundations of computational social science for Department of Computational Social Science and computational cognitive modeling for Psychology and most recently, data science and knowledge mining for the Department of Computational and Data Sciences. Served 6 years on the program committee for BRiMS and 3 year in the same position for SPB and then SBP-BRiMS. Co-Chair of Int's Conf. on Cognitive Modeling in 2017. Regular reviewer for several conferences in cognitive science, computational social science, and robotics.
Led the Department of Energy's strategic planning, organizational performance measures, annual performance reporting efforts for the Secretary, working on the edge between political appointees and the career federal employees. Originally joined DOE as the Technical Director of the Light Water Reactor option for the production of tritium, a program ended with the end of the Cold War.
After 6 years of active duty in the Submarine Service, continued service in the Reserves for 24 years rising to the leadership of the community. Commanded three Naval Reserve Units: a submarine squadron support unit, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center support unit, and the CNO submarine program support unit. I had command of the CNO's submarine unit in Pentagon on 9/11/2001. I served on a promotion selection board and on the annual reserve command and billet selection board. Both of which involved reviewing over 2,000 officers' careers, an excellent active duty assignment. I competed successfully at the national level for paid billets for over 12 years after becoming a senior officer (i.e., reaching the rank of Commander) and was in paid billets until retirement at 30 years of service. Retired with Legion of Merit medal for direction of the submarine reserve program. Retired onboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore harbor.
Technical Assistant to the Executive Director (EDO), Incident Investigation Team (IIT) Member (twice), Reviewer of nuclear power plant Human Factors (emergency operating procedures), & issues concerning reliance on operators for reactor safety. Member of task force deciding generic implications of the Salem reactor's failure to shut down.