Will Thompson

Will Thompson is a Beta Gamma Sigma MS Business Analytics student with a BA in Mathematics and minor in Middle East Studies from Carleton College. His academic interests are in the intersection between statistics, politics, and economics. He hopes to use an interdisciplinary combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance equitable, sustainable development that improves people’s lives both domestically and abroad.  He has experience applying data to policy as an intern at the Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C where he helped research data questions related to maritime security, conflict resolution, as well as the strategic and political dimensions of data. Before that, Will did statistical research in causal vector autoregression with a professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

As a Boren Fellow, he will be living in Jordan studying Arabic so that he may better communicate with local Jordanians on matters of policy, as well as incorporate Arabic research material into his professional work. Additionally, he plans to work on a project using data to advance economic development. Specifically, he hopes to leverage his technical background in mathematics and statistics towards water development and building data tools for more effective policy management of water resources. 

After the Boren Fellowship, Will intends to apply his knowledge of the region with his mathematics background to contribute to a data-driven approach to U.S Middle East and foreign economic policy.