Clavius Distinguished Lecture 2022: From Fracking to Film – The Importance of Informatics and Data Analytics

Informatics has quietly become a tool that underpins nearly every aspect of our lives. In the realm of energy markets, it helps answer questions ranging from how best to frack a well to how we keep our lights (and heat) on. And in the film industry, which is recovering from a true “black swan” event in COVID-19, one that rapidly distorted viewing habits, some producers and distributors using informatics to determine when and where to release a film. Whether used to predict human behaviors or physical phenomena, informatics and data science are perhaps the most important tools in the toolbox for ensuring quality of life. When used to prescribe or manipulate human behaviors, they are perhaps the biggest threat.

Join distinguished members of the Fordham community for this conversation! A reception will follow the lecture.

Agenda

• Welcome: Ann Gaylin, Ph.D., dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Fordham University
• Introduction: D. Frank Hsu, Ph.D., Clavius Distinguished Professor of Science, Department of Computer and Information Science, Fordham University
• Keynote Address: Allen Gilmer

About the Speaker
Allen Gilmer is the founder and former CEO and chairman of Enverus, a leading energy industry software as a service platform. He is also managing partner of Redbud Studios and AHuevo Films, which produces and finances feature films and streaming content, including the controversial Alina of Cuba about Fidel Castro’s daughter and her defection from Cuba in 1993—currently in production starring Ana Villafane and James Franco. Gilmer has been recognized as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in Texas, by various Texas business journals as Best Large Company CEO, and by Texas Monthly as Best Geoscientist in Texas. He received his B.S. in geosciences from Rice University and his M.S. in geosciences from The University of Texas at El Paso, where his thesis was selected as “Outstanding Thesis” in 1987 and where he was honored as distinguished alumni in 2017. He worked with Frank Hsu to establish the Data Analytics program at UTEP, which offers everything from certificates to doctorates.