James Church is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of West Georgia. James completed his PhD in computer science from the University of Mississippi under the advisement of Dr. Yixin Chen, with a research focus on computational geometry. While at the University of Mississippi, he learned the skills necessary for data analysis in his side job, where he worked as a database administrator and analyst for the Marijuana Potency Monitoring Program (MPMP) led by Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly. The software written by James is used by the laboratory to store and track the chemical composition of marijuana samples. This data is provided to the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse to report marijuana potency. The knowledge gained through his experience as an analyst for the MPMP (as well as other companies) was turned into a data analysis course for undergraduates at the University of Mississippi. This course was taught using the languages of Python and R. James enjoys spending time with his wife, Michelle Allen, teaching, and playing board games with his friends.
