Jasjeet "Jas" Singh Sekhon is a

data scientist Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a bro ...

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

, and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Sekhon is the Eugene Meyer Professor at

, a fellow of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

, and a fellow of the

Society for Political Methodology The Society for Political Methodology (SPM) is a learned society focused on quantitative methods in political science, and an organized section of the American Political Science Association. Founded in 1983, it publishes the peer-reviewed journal ...

. Sekhon's primary research interests lie in

causal inference Causal inference is the process of determining the independent, actual effect of a particular phenomenon that is a component of a larger system. The main difference between causal inference and inference of association is that causal inference ana ...

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

, and their intersection. He has also published research on their application in various fields including

voting behavior Voting behavior is a form of electoral behavior. Understanding voters' behavior can explain how and why decisions were made either by public decision-makers, which has been a central concern for political scientists, or by the electorate. To inter ...

, online experimentation,

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

, and

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

Biography

Sekhon graduated with a B.A. from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. In 1999, he earned a Ph.D. at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Sekhon's career in academia began in 1999, when he became an assistant professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He stayed at Harvard until 2005 when he moved to

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. At Berkeley, he was appointed as the Robson Professor of Political Science and Statistics in 2014. In 2019, he accepted a non-academic position as Head of Advanced Data Science at

Bridgewater Associates Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975. The firm serves institutional clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments, and central banks. It utilizes a globa ...

, and in 2020 left Berkeley to join

, where he was appointed Meyer Professor of Political Science and Statistics and Data Science in 2021. He was named a fellow of the Society for Political Methodology in 2019 and a fellow of the

in 2021. Sekhon has authored or co-authored dozens of journal articles and several widely used R packages. The topics of his scholarship include experimental research methods,

for estimating causal effects, election fraud, and matching. His research has been widely cited.

Research

Sekhon is best known for his research in

and

. His early research on causal inference focused on the role of matching, but he later wrote an article pointing out that matching is unable to address many of the problems (particularly the selection on observables assumption) that its proponents assume. Nevertheless, his Genetic Matching algorithm remains one of his most highly cited articles. As of 2021, his research focuses on developing interpretable and credible machine learning methods for estimating causal relationships. One of Sekhon's first publications, a journal article in ''Digestive Diseases and Sciences'', presented a novel treatment,

glucocorticoid Glucocorticoids (or, less commonly, glucocorticosteroids) are a class of corticosteroids, which are a class of steroid hormones. Glucocorticoids are corticosteroids that bind to the glucocorticoid receptor that is present in almost every vertebr ...

, for a rare disease that he suffered. Sekhon himself was the first case described in the article.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekhon, Jasjeet S. Fellows of the American Statistical Association American political scientists American statisticians Yale University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Cornell University alumni