[vitajex]

What he did to win the scroll competition had to do with data analysis, not ancient history, so of course it could be relevant. But none of us, including the author of the article, knows what they're specifically doing, so it's not possible to say how relevant it is. It's a pity the reporter didn't do some reporting about that, instead of writing a hit piece calling them lackeys.

[alfalfasprout]

That's a completely different type of "analysis" and on a completely different scale. The skillsets are not even remotely comparable.

[vitajex]

You're more confident about that than I am. I find it easy to imagine how a person who produces the first kind of analysis could be technically useful in analyzing government data. He presumably didn't know anything about ancient scrolls before working on the first thing, so he has a track record of conquering a steep learning curve.

But we don't actually know what they're doing.

[fastball]

I'm glad you've done both and are here to weigh in! Perhaps you should join the cause as you are presumably a subject matter expert in both things?