James W.  Lark, III is an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and an adjunct professor in the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.   He is a director of the Financial Engineering Research Group at U.Va.   He received a B.S. in Mathematics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Va. Tech), and received a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.  

     Dr. Lark has served as a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech.  He was an Earhart Foundation Visiting Fellow at the Center for Research in Government Policy and Business in the Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester.  He has also served as a visiting scholar in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  He is the author of publications in the areas of mathematics, operations research, and artificial intelligence.

     Dr. Lark currently serves as advisor to The Liberty Coalition and its constituent organizations at the University of Virginia. He founded several of the Coalition organizations while a graduate student at the University of Virginia.  He also advises college and high school libertarians throughout the country on promoting libertarian ideas on campus.  He has lectured and conducted workshops on campus organizing at several state Libertarian Party conventions, and at the Libertarian Party national conventions in 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998.  He served as a member of the Libertarian Party’s "Success ‘97" and "Success ‘99" Leadership Seminar faculty.

     Dr. Lark has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 1984 (he is a Life Member).  He currently serves as an at-large member of the Libertarian National Committee, and as the national campus coordinator for the Libertarian Party.  He serves as the campus coordinator for the L.P.Va., the Ninth Congressional District chair, and the secretary of the Jefferson Area Libertarians (Charlottesville, Virginia).   He has previously served as vice-chairman and secretary of the L.P.Va., and his current term as L.P. Va. vice-chairman just ended (1998-2000).  He served as a member of the Libertarian Party’s platform committee in 1991 and 1998; he will serve on the bylaws committee at the 2000 convention.   He has served as a national campus liaison for the Libertarian Party, and has conducted three campus organizing tours on behalf of the Party.  He has been active in ballot access efforts, and was honored by the Party for his effort during the L.P.’s 1992 ballot drive.

     Dr. Lark is a member of the Academic Board of Advisors for the Institute for Health Freedom in Washington, D.C.