Christopher Marks
Links
Research Interests
I am interested in social media data analytics with an emphasis on inferring sociocultural characteristics from social media data. In particular, I am interested in how political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information events and activities correlate with structure in social media data. I am currently serving at US Southern Command as an Operations Research/Systems Analyst.
Working Papers
- Marks, C. E., & Zaman, T. (2016). A multi-urn model for network search. arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.08080.
- Klausen, J., Marks, C., & Zaman, T. (2016). Finding Online Extremists in Social Networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.06242.
- Marks, C. E., & Zaman, T. (2017). Building a location-based set of social media users. Draft Paper. We also have created visualizations of data collected from users in Caracas and Marawi using the method described in this paper.
Presentations & Tutorials
- INFORMS 2015 Twitter Mining Tutorial
- Finding That Guy: An Exploration of ISIS Social Media Use (INFORMS 2015)
- A Multi-Urn Model for Network Search (INFORMS 2016). Slides.
- Finding Online Extremists in Social Networks ( 2016 INFORMS Social Media Analytics Best Student Paper). Slides.
News
- September 2018 — Uploaded R package ROpenLayers to GitHub. ROpenLayers enables R users to leverage the power of the OpenLayers JavaScript libraries and web-based map servers to create interactive geo-spatial visualization products. In addition to the example on GitHub README, I've posted a short geo-tagged Tweet vignette and the PDF Documentation. Please use the package and document any issues!
- January 2019 — Compiled R package twinfoR and uploaded to Intelink. This package makes mining Twitter data easy.
US DoD Experience
Assignments History
2019–Present US Joint Special Operations Command
Fort Bragg, NC
Operations Research/Systems Analyst (ORSA)
Leads JSOC'S HQ Modernization team. Supervises a multidisciplinary team of military, DoD civilians, and contractors to continuously improve HQ processes and efficiency through automation and implementation of cutting edge technologies.
2017–2019 US Southern Command
Doral, FL
Operations Research/Systems Analyst (ORSA)
Leads SOUTHCOMS's Strategic Analysis & Decision Support division. Supervises a 4-person ORSA cell to provide timely and relevant research and analyses to inform senior leader and staff decisions.
2012–2014 US Army TRADOC Analysis Center (Now Army Research & Analysis Center)
Monterey, CA
Research Analyst
Led and participated in multiple research projects including assessing Army training program effectiveness, design and execution of subject matter expert elicitations, optimization of Army Force Generation cycles, and introducing entity autonomy in military simulations.
2009–2012 United States Military Academy
West Point, NY
Assistant Professor
Taught integral calculus, introduction to mathematical modeling, and probability and statistics. Course Director for undergraduate probability & statistics, AY 2011-2012. Co-authored "Applying Bootstrap Methods to System Reliability" (2014).
2003–2007 US Army 4th Infantry Division
Fort Hood, TX
Captain
Served as Division Engineer Staff Officer (January 2003—January 2004), 1st Special Troops Battalion Assistant Operations Officer (January 2004—October 2004), 1st Special Troops Battalion & 1-12 Infantry Battalion Engineer Company Commander (October 2004—June 2006), and 4th Brigade Engineer (June 2006—Jun 2007).
1998–2002 US Army 1st Infantry Division
Schweinfurt, Germany
Lieutenant
Served in the 9th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team as B Company 1st Platoon Leader (December 1998—November 1999), Assistant Battalion Operations Officer (December 1999—October 2000), and C Company Executive Officer (October 2000—February 2002).
Military Education & Schools
- 2013 Officer Intermediate Level Education
- 2012 Operations Research/Systems Analysis Qualification Course
- 2004 Company Commanders Course
- 2002 Mechanized Leaders Course
- 2002 Combined Arms Services Staff School
- 2002 Engineer Officer Advanced Course
- 1999 Motor Officer Course
- 1999 Sling Load Inspector Certification
- 1998 Engineer Officer Basic Course
- 1998 Master Fitness Trainer Course
- 1997 Airborne School
Awards & Decorations
Bronze Star (2)
Meritorious Service Medal (2)
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Army Achievement Medal (2)
National Defense Service Medal (2)
Kosovo Campaign Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal
Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal
Global War on Terror Service Medal
Army Service Ribbon
Overseas Service Ribbon (3)
NATO Medal
Parachutist Badge
Deployments
E Company, 1-12 Infantry
Baghdad, Iraq (2006)
- Kosovo (June—December 1999)
- Tikrit & Kirkuk, Iraq (March 2003—March 2004)
- Baghdad, Iraq (December 2005—December 2006)
Education
- Ph.D. in Operations Research, Data Analytics Track (MIT, 2017)
- S.M. in Operations Research (MIT, 2009)
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (West Point, 1998)