Hamdan Azhar

Hamdan Azhar is an acclaimed writer and freelance journalist specializing in public policy and technology and society. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, PolicyMic, and the Huffington Post. He is working on his first novel about hipsters in Montana.

A recovering academic, Hamdan also dabbles in statistics and data science. He served as Ron Paul's national statistician and devised and implemented a national caucus state microtargeting strategy in the 2012 campaign. Last September, he moved to Silicon Valley to accept a data scientist position at a tech startup where he developed cutting-edge algorithms for predictive behavioral analytics in social networks.

Hamdan holds a master's in biostatistics from the University of Michigan, a bachelor's in economics from Penn State University, and completed one year of doctoral coursework in neuroscience at the University of Chicago. He has held research positions at the United Nations, at the University of Michigan, and at Columbia Business School.

In his free time, Hamdan enjoys reading existential fiction (think Murakami), hiking in Muir Woods, and exploring new jazz bars. His wanderlust has led him to Death Valley, Montana, and Moab - all in the past six months. He wanted to be an astronaut when he was growing up and is a native of Brooklyn, New York.