Hello, welcome to the blog of Dr. Nick Davis. I’m a Christian, a husband and father, a data science leader, researcher, hacker, an avid reader, sci-fi fan, and all-around computer geek. I live in Tulsa, OK with my wife Adrienne, daughters Sydney and Marissa, and our cat Pumpkin. Adrienne and I love spending time with our beautiful girls. More generally, we enjoy hanging out with our family and friends, watching movies, going to concerts, and traveling whenever we get the chance.

Currently, I lead Data Science at Verinovum, a healthcare data curation company. Previously, I’ve held leadership positions in Data Science at eLynx Technologies, an oil and gas SCADA monitoring company. Prior to rejoining industry, I served as a Research Scientist and Assistant Professor of Research in Medical Informatics at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine in Tulsa, OK. During my academic tenure, I had a concurrent role as Data Scientist at MyHealth Access Network.

I earned my PhD in Computer Science in at the University of Tulsa, and was a doctoral researcher in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Some research interests include SNP feature selection, data mining and machine learning algorithms, change point estimation in fMRI data, and parallel computing. I also hold MS and BS degrees in CS from TU. Previous to my PhD research, I focused mostly on information security work, eventually earning a CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional). During master’s graduate school, I worked on research projects involving secure operating systems and peer-to-peer networks.

Going ever deeper in the past, I was Founding Software Developer for Vidoop, an Internet security and identity company that provides some useful solutions for managing one’s identity on the web. While at Vidoop I was inventor of the company’s flagship patented authentication technology, the ImageShield. The Vidoop name and technology is now owned by Confident Technologies We had several projects spanning an array of languages, tools, and disciplines, including PHP-based web development, a C++ backend service, C/C++ database drivers, a Python-based build system (SCons), VoiceXML applications, and various system administration tasks (email, LDAP, web, networking/security, DB). So it was a great experience, and I definitely got the opportunity to wear many different hats.

Outside of work, I’m a technology enthusiast in general. Apple products are a relatively recent interest, and I’m not ashamed to admit I own a couple macs and an iPhone, and consider Mac OS X to be a pretty good Unix OS. I’ve been a big fan of Linux and the open source movement since around 1997 or so, and enjoy tinkering with open source projects. It’s exciting that the developer community has helped solidify open source and open standards as essential to the growth and vitality of the current and future Open Web, as well as software in general.

I also love reading about scientific breakthroughs and advances in technology. Nanotechnology has been a favorite subject ever since I read Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age and K. Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation. Clean, renewable energy is also interesting, even without the all of the associated politics. I think that wherever possible, people should employ safe, sustainable sources of energy like solar and wind. Biotechnology and bioinformatics will become increasingly important in the future, not only in fighting diseases that plague us, but also in developing personalized medicines, tailored to each individual’s genetic characteristics.

The title of the site is attributed to sci-fi/cyberpunk author William Gibson, and is loosely based on one of his quotes: “The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.”