Ben Klemens (born April 10, 1975) is an Australian economist, author, and co-host of the podcast 'Pod, Paper, Scissors'. He works for the US Treasury Department and was previously a nonresident fellow at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

's Center on Social and Economic Dynamics. He holds a PhD in Social Sciences from

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. Klemens is the author of the proposal to the

Unicode consortium The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intentio ...

for the Falafel emoji, which will be appearing across web platforms in 2019.

Statistical computing

In the realm of statistical computing, Klemens has done extensive work on statistical analysis for large data sets and non-traditional models such as agent-based models. He developed an innovative library of statistics functions for C, named Apophenia, and has written a textbook on statistical computing, ''Modeling with Data''.

Software patent policy

Klemens has also worked on the policy aspects of computing, and in particular the issue of

software patents A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, libraries, user interface, or algorithm. Background A patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a state to a patent holder for a limited period of time, u ...

. He has argued in a book entitled ''Math You Can't Use'' () and a law review article that intangibles such as computer code and mathematics should not be patentable subject matter. Klemens was previously the executive director of End Software Patents, an advocacy group that has lobbied to eliminating software patents and has organized around the Bilski v. Kappos case that was decided by the Supreme Court in 2010. He is a featured expert in the documentary ''Patent Absurdity: How Software Patents Broke the System'' (2010). His writings on the subject have appeared in the op-ed sections of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', Ars Technica, and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. He has occasionally commented on broader issues of technology policy and

patent law A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Klemens, Ben 1975 births Living people Australian technology writers Australian science writers California Institute of Technology alumni