User:Aetheling

Aetheling (æþeling in Old Norse) is my Wiktionary/Wikipedia user name. My real name is Loren Cobb, PhD. I have been editing Wikipedia and its sister resources since March 2006.

I am an associate research professor in the Department of Mathematics, University of Colorado Denver (now retired). For eight years I was the Director of the UCD Statistical Consulting Service. Although retired, I still pursue research in mathematical epidemiology for the UCD research seminar on data assimilation at the Center for Computational Mathematics.

My PhD is in mathematical sociology from Cornell University, awarded just after the dawn of civilization (1973). For sixteen years (1977–93) I was a professor of biostatistics and biomathematics, first at the Medical University of South Carolina and then at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, working as a research consultant in just about every area of medicine. For the next fifteen years (1993–2008) I was an independent freelance mathematician, engaged in consulting projects ranging from algorithm and code analysis to simulations of social dysfunction.

I have worked with military institutions all over the world on issues of military reform and restructuring for modern peacekeeping. I have worked on modeling and simulation of third-world societies for DARPA, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Swedish Defence University, the US National Defense University, and US Southern Command.

I am the author of numerous simulation models for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, including three that were written specifically for training officers in UN peacekeeping operations, and another for a joint project of Sweden and the USA to build a state-of-the-art command center for peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations.

In the late 1990s I designed and facilitated the NationLab series of high-level exercises in national strategy and crisis management for seven Latin American countries, and the RegionLab exercise in international negotiations, under the auspices of the US National Defense University (CHDS). In 2004 I was awarded the gold medal of the Bolivian School of Advanced National Studies, for my work in developing the NationLab approach to Bolivian national strategic studies in corruption, poverty, and organized crime.

With my late friend Bob Thrall, I edited the book Mathematical Frontiers of the Social and Policy Sciences. My work has been funded by federal grants and contracts since 1973, from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and a variety of international sources.

So far, I have written three books, 20 chapters in books, 23 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and five major software systems. I have designed and implemented four computer languages, and hold a patent for my commercial software algorithms.

— Aetheling, last updated 26 April 2017.