I am a data scientist with a diverse background visual analytics, data mining, social media analytics, machine learning, and computational modeling.  I have worked on a broad array of topics including public safety, environment and sustainability, public health, and other topics in applied modelling in the social and life sciences, with over 400 publications. My unique trans-disciplinary skill set enables me to examine a wide range of topics that are often of broad interest and importance to policy makers and the general public, and in my work I have regularly liased with stakeholders in industry, non-profits, and all levels of government.

My work in the social sciences has been high impact, including an analysis of how media can incite panic in a population, and how contagion may play a role in the temporal patterns observed in mass killings in the US. The latter work has received extensive media coverage, including on BBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, NPR, Reuters, USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, The Atlantic, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Vox, and many other local, national, and international news agencies. The study was also profiled in Season 8, Episode 4 of Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole documentary series on the Discovery Channel in 2017, “Is Gun Crime a Virus?”.

Several of my publications in public health and epidemiology have also received widespread attention, including forecasts for the progression of the 2009 influenza pandemic, and the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Both analyses correctly forecast the progression of the epidemics, and my forecast for the 2009 pandemic was discussed in a special US Senate meeting on October 23, 2009 H1N1 Flu: Monitoring the Nation’s response.

Through my consulting company, Towers Consulting LLC, I provide consulting services for industry, academia, and the public sector in quantitative and predictive analytics, modelling, statistics, and visual analytics.  Notable past and current clients include the Cure Violence Global, the Carter Center, George Washington University, and Disney. Prospective clients can contact me at TowersConsultingLLC@gmail.com.

In my free time I am an avid backcountry enthusiast, and I am a certified Ground Search and Rescue volunteer with local search and rescue.

On this website I share information and computational tools related to a wide range of my research topics, including visual analytics, applied statistics, and mathematical and computational modelling methods. This website also includes material related to my lectures and seminars in statistical and computational methods in the life and social sciences when I was affiliated research faculty at Arizona State University.