Who I Am, and Why the New Blog

Hi, Norm Matloff here.  I’m a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, and formerly was a statistics professor at that university, but I also write about social issues.  As the saying goes, “My life is an open book”–you can read the details of my background in my online bio.

I’ve written op-eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg View, CNN and so on.  Bloomberg gathers together its op-eds grouped by author; click here to see mine, and thus get an idea of my interests and views.  When there is a topic of national interest on which I know important aspects that are not getting reported, I like to speak out.  On the other end of the pen,  I have been quoted by virtually every major news outlet, both electronic and print.  I tend to be an iconoclast.

In this blog, my topics will often fall into one of these categories:

• The tech industry labor market, especially regarding the H-1B work visa and age discrimination (starting at age 35!).
• STEM education issues.
• University admissions policies, particularly related to diversity.
• China–culture, politics, language, relations with the U.S.
• Economics.

People have been urging me to write blogs for years, but I resisted until a few months ago, when I began a blog called Mad (Data) Scientist, on statistics and the R programming language.  That seems to be working out, so it’s high time to start one on social issues.

My first post will be on the recent influx of children from South America into the U.S. without authorization.  Sadly, the kids’ parents have been deceived into thinking that U.S. policy allows them to stay. You will be surprised to find that this incident is something of an echo of events that took place more than 20 years ago.  Stay tuned for details!