James Howard (mathematician)
James P. Howard, II, is an American mathematician at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he works as a data scientist and statistician. Early life. Howard was born in Dayton, Ohio and attended schools in southwest Ohio. He studied mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park, environmental science at the Johns Hopkins University, and public policy at the University of Baltimore. He earned his doctorate in 2014 in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research focused on the economic costs of the National Flood Insurance Program. Career. He is a scientist  at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory where his work focuses on data science. In addition, he has led research projects on blockchain, augmented reality, and public health. Howard also maintains the R package "phonics" for managing phonetic spellings in R. Howard joined the Board of Appeals for Howard County in 2011, where he has taken part in several controversial land use decisions. In addition, Howard has been a member of the Maryland Defense Force since 2006, where he has served as information management chief. He also served as a member of the Howard County Charter Review Commission in 2019  recommending changes to make redistricting independent and insulate decisions from political influence. Howard ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018 and ran for delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention pledged to Elizabeth Warren.