Mark Ward

Mark Ward, author of Virtual Organisms, is an Associate Professor of Statistics at Purdue University.  He has held visiting faculty positions at The George Washington University, the University of Maryland, the University of Paris 13, and a lecturer position at the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in Mathematics with Specialization in Computational Science (2005), M.S. in Applied Mathematics Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (2003), and B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Denison University (1999).  His research interests include probabilistic, combinatorial, and analytical techniques for the analysis of algorithms and data structures.  Since 2008, he has been the Undergraduate Chair in Statistics at Purdue, and the Associate Director for Actuarial Science. Dr. Ward is currently the Principal Investigator for two NSF grants, "MCTP: Sophomore Transitions: Bridges into a Statistics Major and Big Data Research Experiences via Learning Communities" (NSF-DMS #1246818, 2013-2018), and "Science of Information: Bringing Many Disciplines Together" (NSF-DUE #1140489, 2012-2014).  He is also Associate Director of the Center for Science of Information (NSF-CCF #0939370, 2010-2015). 
He and his wife homeschool their four children.