Nick Hand, PhD

I'm the director of the Finance, Policy, and Data unit in the Office of the City Controller in Philadelphia. My team works to produce data-driven, objective analysis of financial policy in the City of Philadelphia and improve transparency around the City's spending of taxpayer dollars. I am passionate about data visualization, predictive analytics, and effective communication of complex ideas to a broad audience. I am a strong supporter of transparency in government, open-source software, and the open science framework.

I am a recent astrophysics Ph.D. graduate from UC Berkeley, where I studied the Universe as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. My dissertation research focused on cosmology, and in particular, the study of the large-scale structure of the Universe. One of my most exciting research achievements involved leading a team that measured the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect for the first time ever.

I graduated from Princeton in 2011 with a B.A. in astrophysics and a certificate in the applications of computing. While not analyzing interesting data sets, I enjoy reading, running long distances, and watching and playing baseball.