Count of Krigsvold
| His Lordship Count of Krigsvold | |
|---|---|
| Baron of Matikonis
| |
| |
| In Office | 9 June 2025 - Present |
| Preceded by | Baron of Abele |
| Born | 16 December 1979 |
His Lordship, the Count of Krigsvold, birth name James Patrick Howard II, is a peer in the Peerage of Westarctica. Since 9 June 2025, he has served in the Royal Household of Grand Duke Travis as the Ellsworth King of Arms and is responsible for producing grants of arms to the peers and knights of Westarctica. The count is the patron of the Count of Krigsvold Fellowship and head of the House of Basu-Howard.
Biography
His Lordship was born on 16 December 1979 in Dayton, Ohio. After two years in a dual enrollment program with Miami University, he transferred to the University of Maryland, College Park, where he completed a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 2002. He later pursued a Master of Public Administration at the University of Baltimore, completing it in 2008. In 2014, Howard earned a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In some ways, His Lordship's life parallels that of German polymath Athanasius Kircher, not only in the breadth of their educations, but also in their career paths as teachers, mathematicians, and philosophers. He has stated: "As an educator, I see myself as a lifelong learner, always seeking out new knowledge and innovative teaching strategies to improve my practice."
Career as data scientist
Howard is a data scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). His work includes developing artificial intelligence models for infectious disease forecasting, evaluating the use of augmented reality in mission planning, and analyzing blockchain applications in national security and government services. He has co-authored publications on the suitability of blockchain technologies for program management and security contexts. Additionally, he has discussed the application of analytics in public health contexts, such as predicting restaurant health inspection outcomes, in interviews and podcasts.
He is the author and maintainer of the phonics package for the R programming language. Howard also developed Freegrep, a BSD-licensed implementation of the Unix grep utility, which he created over a weekend in July 1999 at the age of 19. Freegrep has been included in several operating systems, including FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Minix, Haiku, macOS, and iOS.
Since 2010, Howard has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he teaches mathematics and statistics courses, including college algebra, finite mathematics, calculus, quantitative reasoning, and business statistics. He has also taught public administration and policy analysis at institutions such as the City University of New York's Baruch College, Central Michigan University, and the University of New Mexico. He also taught public finance and financial management at the University of Baltimore.
From 2003 to 2012, Howard worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as a scientific computing consultant, where he contributed to research and policy-related computing initiatives. He later served as an external consultant to several U.S. federal agencies, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Executive Office of the President, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Civic and volunteer service
From 2005 to 2011, His Lordship served on the Columbia Association’s Budget and Financial Advisory committees, serving as chair of both committees during multiple terms.
He was appointed to the Board of Appeals in Howard County, Maryland, in 2011, serving until 2021. In 2011, Howard voted in favor of a decision allowing Frisky's Wildlife and Primate Sanctuary to continue operating in western Howard County, despite neighborhood complaints and zoning challenges. The case attracted public attention due to the presence of capuchin monkeys and other exotic animals and raised questions about the limits of conditional use in rural residential zones. In 2013, the board faced scrutiny after a hearing was rescheduled with minimal public notice, prompting accusations of violating Maryland’s Open Meetings Act. Howard publicly defended the Board’s procedural actions but later supported administrative reforms to improve transparency. In 2015, he joined the board majority in granting AT&T approval for the construction of a 145-foot cell tower in Fulton, overruling significant neighborhood opposition.
Howard has served in the Maryland Defense Force (MDDF) since 2006 and was promoted to the rank of captain in 2013.
Political career
In 2018, Howard ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 12 as a Democratic candidate in the primary, a multi-member district covering parts of Howard and Baltimore counties. He was one of eight candidates competing for three seats and received 1,283 votes, approximately 3.9% of the total, but did not advance to the general election. In 2020, he appeared on the Democratic primary ballot as a pledged delegate candidate for Senator Elizabeth Warren in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District for the Democratic National Convention. Although Warren had suspended her presidential campaign by the time of the primary, Howard remained on the ballot and received 3,623 votes.
Career in Westarctica
On 28 November 2024, Howard was granted the peerage title Baron of Matikonis, so-named for Matikonis Peak. A week later, he was granted a second title, that of Count of Krigsvold, so-named for the Krigsvold Nunataks. At this time, Baron of Matikonis became his subordinate title.
In his capacity as Head of the House of Basu-Howard, His Lordship awarded Grand Duke Travis a knighthood in the Order of the Peacock in 2025.
Count of Krigsvold Fellowship Patron
In December 2024, His Lordship expressed interest in becoming the patron of the Westarctica Conservation Scholarship. After discussions with Grand Duke Travis, he subsequently pledged $1,000 to increase the annual award amount and slightly refine the grant requirements. The scholarship was re-named the Count of Krigsvold Fellowship in honor of His Lordship's funding pledge. The grant was first awarded in May 2025.
Ellsworth King of Arms
On 9 June 2025, the count was appointed to the office of Ellsworth King of Arms and given the task of heading the Westarctican College of Arms, the institution which is responsible for creating arms for Westarctica's peers and knights.
Titles
Baron of Matikonis- Count of Krigsvold
Head of the House of Basu-Howard
Awards
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2025
- Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, 2022
- Fellow of the Cybernetics Society, 2021
- Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2021
- Fellow of the British Computer Society, 2020
Degrees
Howard has earned a total of eight academic degrees.
- Ph.D. in public policy, University of Maryland Baltimore County (2014)
- M.A. in Buddhist studies, University of South Wales (2024)
- M.S. in electrical engineering, Columbia University (2024)
- M.S. in applied and computational mathematics, Johns Hopkins University (2021)
- M.S. in environmental engineering and science, Johns Hopkins University (2019)
- M.P.A. in public policy and administration, University of Baltimore (2008)
- B.A. in East Asian studies, University of Maryland Global Campus (2020)
- B.S. in mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park (2002)