Driven by childhood curiosity, my journey into physics was sparked by a desire to tackle tangible, real-world challenges. Today, as a data privacy scientist, I'm committed to fostering an inclusive data privacy community while making a meaningful impact in my field and beyond.
Claire McKay Bowen is a senior fellow in the Family and Financial Well-Being Division and leads the Data Governance and Privacy practice area at the Urban Institute. Her research primarily focuses on developing technical and policy solutions to safely expand access to confidential data that advances evidence-based policymaking. She is also interested in improving science communication and integrating data equity into the data privacy process.
In 2021, the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies identified Bowen as an emerging leader in statistics for her technical contributions and leadership to statistics and the field of data privacy and confidentiality. Further, she served as a member of the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, is on several other data governance and data privacy committees, and she is an adjunct professor at Stonehill College.
Bowen holds an honors BS in mathematics and physics from Idaho State University and an MS and PhD in statistics from the University of Notre Dame. After completing her PhD, she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she investigated cosmic ray effects on supercomputers.
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