Jonah Lynch

Since childhood, Jonah pursued a renaissance ideal: competence in many fields, endless curiosity. He began his search for knowledge as a Physics student at McGill university, and then broadened into humanistic interests, including studies in philosophy, a doctorate in theology and service as a priest. Today he resides in Italy and divides his time between scientific research, consulting, and teaching.

Since age seven he has been a computer programmer, and wrote a best-selling book about technology and human relationships, The Scent of Lemons. He has given lectures in prestigious settings around the world, including MIT, the University of Chicago, the JRC, l’Accademia Ambrosiana, the Politecnico and the Catholic University of Milan. His data science highlights include creating an algorithm to predict hospital emergency room overflow 24 hours in advance, developing visualization software for complex knowledge graphs, and using Natural Language Processing to map the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia. He recently completed a second doctorate at the University of Pavia in digital humanities, entitled “Method and Intelligence: Digital approaches to memory and communication in historiography”.

Jonah has dedicated much of his career to education. He holds an M.Ed in Science Education from the George Washington University, and has taught at all levels. He has also been an administrator, and served as Vice-rector and then Rector of a Roman seminary for eight years. He currently teaches "Elements of statistics, probabilistic reasoning, and R” at the University of Milan-Bicocca, and is the Executive Director of the Opus 73 Foundation, an educational non-profit.

Jonah has a longstanding interest in art, and has collaborated with musicians, mosaic artists and painters, and has directed several documentary films and museum exhibits. Currently, he is collaborating in two AI-based art projects, including the land-art Compos[t]ing project with Ingrid Ogenstedt and Ingrid Mayerhofer-Hufnagl sponsored by the European Union, and the AI-based translation of Shane Guffogg’s paintings into music, which will be performed at the Venice Biennale in 2024.