About the IAPP

John Abowd is the U.S. Census Bureau’s associate director for research and methodology, and chief scientist. He was named to the position in June 2016. The Research and Methodology Directorate leads critical work to modernize our operations and products. He is leading the agency’s efforts to create a differentially private protection system for the 2020 Census and future data products. His long association with the Census Bureau began in 1998 when he joined the team that helped found the longitudinal employer-household dynamics program. In 2008, he led the team that created the world’s first application of a differentially private protection system for the program’s OnTheMap job location tool. Abowd is also the Edmund Ezra Day Professor of economics, statistics, and information science at Cornell University. He is a fellow and past president of the Society of Labor Economists. He is also a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Econometric Society, as well as an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and an A.B. from the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame.