Christopher White

Chris White is a Principal Researcher and Partner at Microsoft working on special projects. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris was a Program Manager developing advanced technologies for data science and leading President Obama’s Big Data Initiative at DARPA. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, a Department of Treasury Intelligence and Analysis medallion, and the Department of Defense Joint Meritorious Unit Award. His work has been featured in media outlets including Popular Science (cover profile), CBS’s 60 Minutes, CNN, the Wall Street Journal (cover S&T), Rolling Stone Magazine (cover), TEDx, and Google’s Solve for X.
Chris was profiled in a cover feature for the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Popular Science.
Chris’s team is currently developing software for data science, focusing on the intersection of artificial intelligence and business intelligence for scalable interaction with data. The work extends Microsoft’s Power BI from structured numerical analysis to enable text, meta-data, and other unstructured data use cases. The team shipped a suite of new data interfaces and information visualizations as well as a “solutions template” for social brand management in 2016.
Learn more about current work from a recent profile of Chris by Microsoft.
Before joining Microsoft, Chris was a Program Manager at DARPA, where he created and managed DARPA’s leading programs XDATA, Memex, and the Open Catalog as part of the President’s Big Data Initiative. His work has been applied to domains including countering human trafficking, countering financial fraud, and counter terrorism. Chris also served DARPA as the Agency’s country lead in Afghanistan.
Prior to DARPA, Chris was a fellow at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, where his research focused on machine learning, statistical methods for large data sets, and human language technology while a Department of Homeland Security Graduate Fellow.
In October 2015, Chris was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the second highest award presented by the Secretary of Defense to non-career Federal employees for contributions, assistance, or support to Department of Defense functions. The citation highlights contributions to national security, defense, law enforcement, and government transparency. His work was also recognized with an award from the Department of the Treasury, with the Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis presenting a medallion for superb contributions to countering terrorist financing.