Dr. Juan M. Lavista Ferres is currently the VP, Chief Data Scientist of the Microsoft AI For Good Lab, where he works with a team of data scientists and researchers in AI, Machine Learning and statistical modeling to catalyze and inspire others to partner in solving the world’s greatest challenges.

Juan joined Microsoft in 2009 to work for the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (EXP) where he designed and ran randomized control experiments across different Microsoft groups. Juan also worked as part of the Bing Data Mining team, where he led a group applying data mining, machine learning, statistical modeling and online experimentation at a large scale as well as providing data services for Bing.

Juan started the Microsoft efforts related to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), and his work has been published in top academic Journals including Pediatrics. His work has been covered in New York Times, CNN, Chicago Tribune, USNews, USAToday, and over 100 news outlets around the world.

Juan is involved in working to define the data science discipline within Microsoft and is currently the editor of the Microsoft Journal of Applied Research (MSJAR).

Before joining Microsoft, Juan was the CTO and co-founder of alerts.com. Previously, he spent 6 years in Washington working at the InterAmerican Development Bank applying data science to understand the impact of programs for reducing poverty and inequality in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Juan has two computer science degrees from the Catholic University in Uruguay, and a graduate degree in Data Mining and Machine Learning from Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Kirkland, WA, with his wife and three children. He has been a speaker in the US at Strata, IEEE, Berkeley, Cornell, and in many countries including Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, and he also was a TedX Speaker.

Dr. LaVista Ferres will be joining BigSurv23 as the virtual keynote speaker on Friday 27, 2023 at 10 am.