William B. Claster is a professor of mathematics and data science at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, where he designed the data science curriculum and has run the data science lab since 2008. He has been recognized for his research in data science applied to the fields of medicine, social media, and geoinformatics. His research includes political analysis, stock market forecasting, tourism, and consumer behavior with machine learning applied to social media data. Originally from Philadelphia, he moved to Japan where he has been a resident there for over 20 years. In addition to research, his interests include Japanese architecture, Buddhism, and philosophy.