Jeff Chen
Chief Innovation Officer, US Bureau of Economic Analysis

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Jeff Chen is the chief innovation officer at the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, where he’s responsible for integrating advancements in data science and machine learning to advance the bureau’s capabilities. A statistician and data scientist, Jeff has extensive experience in launching and leading data science initiatives in over 40 domains, working with diverse stakeholders such as firefighters, climatologists, and technologists, among others to introduce data science and new technologies to advance their missions. Previously, he was the chief scientist at the US Department of Commerce; a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow with NASA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, focused on data science for the environment; the first director of analytics at the NYC Fire Department, where he engineered pioneering algorithms for fire prediction; and on of the first data scientists at the NYC Mayor’s Office under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Jeff started his career as an econometrician at an international engineering consultancy, where he developed forecasting and prediction models supporting for large-scale infrastructure investment projects. In the evenings, he’s an adjunct professor of data science at Georgetown University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Tufts University and a master’s degree in applied statistics from Columbia University.