James Ricci is a Senior Program Scientist at Schmidt Futures. In this role, James helps find and manage programs within the Scientific Knowledge portfolio, including fellowship programs and new platforms or research projects that aim to change the way scientific research is done.
Prior to Schmidt Futures, James was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Daemen College in Buffalo, NY. In 2018-2019, James was selected as the American Mathematical Society’s Congressional Fellow, where he spent his fellowship in the U.S. Senate working in Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Office as a policy advisor on topics relating to education, healthcare, workforce development, and data privacy. In 2019-2020, James served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Energy where he worked in the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program office. In this role, James assisted with program management within the computer science research portfolio on topics relating to data management and analysis, artificial intelligence, supercomputing, high-end computational science, and advanced networking for science. He also helped with operational support for four scientific user facilities, including (what was at the time) the world’s most powerful supercomputer.
James holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Wesleyan University, and a B.A. from Vassar College.