Appendix A
Biographical Information of Committee and Staff
Chair
DAVID BANKS obtained an M.S. in applied mathematics from Virginia Tech in 1982, followed by a Ph.D. in statistics in 1984. He won a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Mathematical Sciences, which he completed at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1986 he was a visiting assistant lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and then joined the Department of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University in 1987. In 1997 he went to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, then served as chief statistician of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and finally joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002. In 2003, he returned to academics at Duke University.
Dr. Banks was the coordinating editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association. He co-founded the journal Statistics and Public Policy and served as its editor. He co-founded the Section on National Defense and Homeland Security of the American Statistical Association (ASA), and has chaired that section, as well as the ASA sections on Risk Analysis and on Statistical Learning and Data Mining. In 2003, he led a research program at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) on Data Mining; in 2008, he led a research program at the Isaac Newton Institute on Theory and Methods for Complex, High-Dimensional Data; in 2012, he led another SAMSI research program, on computational advertising. He has published 74 refereed articles, edited eight books, and written four monographs.
Dr. Banks is past president of the Classification Society and has twice served on ASA Board of Directors. He is currently the president of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics. He is a fellow of the ASA and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and he recently won the ASA's Founders Award.
His research areas include models for dynamic networks, dynamic text networks, adversarial risk analysis (i.e., Bayesian behavioral game theory), human rights statistics agent-based models, forensics, and certain topics in high-dimensional data analysis.
Members
THOMAS D. ALBRIGHT (NAS) is Professor and Director of the Vision Center Laboratory and Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. His laboratory focuses on the neural structures and events underlying the perception of motion, form, and color. Albright is a leader in the study of the brain systems underlying visual perception and memory in primates. His work has demonstrated the importance of context in information processing and provides a foundation for determining how the brain detects the features of retinal images and integrates them into a perceptual whole. Dr. Albright holds a B.S. degree in psychology from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University.
RICHARD A. BERK holds a B.A. in psychology from Yale University and a Ph.D. in sociology from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Berk was previously a Distinguished Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Berk is an elected fellow of the ASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Academy of Experimental Criminology. His research interests include statistical learning procedures and applied statistics more generally. He has published extensively on program evaluation, criminal justice, environmental issues, and applied statistics. Professor Berk’s two most recent books are Statistical Learning from a Regression Perspective (Springer Series in Statistics, 2008) and Criminal Justice Forecasts of Risk: A Machine Learning Approach (Springer Briefs in Computer Science, 2012).
SCOTT MCNAMARA is currently serving a third term as the Oneida County (NY) District Attorney. He received his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University with a major in mathematics and a J.D. from Vermont Law School. McNamara has been a prosecutor for over 24 years and has handled thousands of cases. Many of his cases have involved narcotic and homicide prosecutions. McNamara has served as the lead prosecutor assigned to the Oneida County Drug Task Force and chaired the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office Death Penalty Committee. From 2001 until 2006, McNamara represented the district attorney’s office on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. During his tenure as district attorney, he created an Economic Crime Unit, a Conviction Integrity Unit, and a Second Chance Program and was appointed a community liaison to improve communication between the district attorney’s office and the diverse
population it serves. In addition, McNamara initiated a procedure of video recording all police interrogations in Oneida County. He also implemented a policy to video record eyewitness identification procedures and to obtain a confidence statement as part of standard police procedure. McNamara is currently a commissioner on the New York State Commission on Forensic Science. He is also the President-elect of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York and a current member of the Committee of the Center for Prosecutor Integrity, reviewing law enforcement use of the “victim-centered” investigation approach. McNamara was a member of the National Academies’ committee that issued the 2014 report Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification.
EUGENE WONG (NAE) served as professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty in 1962, where he pursued his research interests in database management systems, optimization algorithms, stochastic processes, and neural networks. From 1985 to 1989, he served as Department Chair, during which time he led the department through its greatest period of growth to become the largest academic department on the Berkeley campus and one of the highest ranked departments in its field. Dr. Wong retired from the EECS Department in 1994 as Professor Emeritus. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Dr. Wong was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge (1959-1960) and a researcher at IBM Research Center in Yorktown, New York (1960-1962).
In 1980, Dr. Wong co-founded Relational Technology, Inc., later renamed the INGRES Corporation, which was a leading provider of database software products. While in Hong Kong from 1994 to 1996, he was instrumental in building an internet backbone for Asia, first as CEO of SuperNet, Ltd., and then as founder of the Asia Internet Holding Company. From 1998 to 2005, he was variously a director, chief scientist, and CEO of Versata, Inc., a public software company serving the distributed enterprise applications market.
Besides Professor Wong's academic and entrepreneurial attainments, he has a distinguished record of national and international public service. From 1990 to 1993, he was the Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, under George H. Bush, where he played a leading role in efforts that led to the U.S.-Japan cooperative program in optoelectronics and to the federal initiatives on high performance computing and communications and on advanced manufacturing technology. While there he also contributed to the enacted version of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991. From 1998 to 2000, he was an assistant director at NSF for engineering, where he inaugurated major initiatives in microsystems, information technology, nanotechnology, service-sector engineering, and biotechnology. In addition, Dr. Wong has served on numerous advisory committees of national and international
organizations (NAE; National Research Council; NATO; Chairman of the Council of Advisors on Innovation and Technology, Office of the Chief Executive, Hong Kong; and the Science and Technology Advisory Group, Office of the Prime Minister of Taiwan). Most recently, he served as Interim Director of Information and Communication Technologies for Science Foundation Ireland.
Dr. Wong received his B.S., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1955, 1958, and 1959, respectively.
SANDY L. ZABELL is professor of mathematics and statistics at Northwestern University. He was assistant professor of statistics at the University of Chicago from 1974 to 1979, and joined Northwestern University in 1980. He is a Fellow of the ASA and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In the past he has served as an Associate Editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and Book Review Editor of the Annals of Probability. His principal research interests revolve around mathematical probability (in particular, large deviation theory) and Bayesian statistics (in particular, the study of exchangeability). He has also written extensively on the history and philosophical foundations of probability and statistics. Professor Zabell has had a long-standing involvement in the legal applications of statistics, including serving on three panels of the National Research Council and teaching courses on statistics at both the University of Chicago and Northwestern law schools. One of his primary interests at present is forensic science, in particular the statistical issues arising from the use of DNA in human identification. He has spoken numerous times at forensic science conferences and lectured on forensic DNA identification in courses at Northwestern. He is also interested in the statistical proof of employment discrimination and the legal uses of sampling. In addition to his scholarly interests, he has assisted legal counsel over the years in more than 200 cases, both civil and criminal.
Dr. Zabell received his A.B. from Columbia College in 1968, his A.M. (in biochemistry and molecular biology) from Harvard University in 1971, and his Ph.D. (in mathematics) from Harvard University in 1974.
Staff
STEVEN KENDALL, Ph.D., is program officer for the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. Dr. Kendall has contributed to numerous National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports, including International Summit on Human Gene Editing: A Global Discussion (2015); Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification (2014); Positioning Synthetic Biology to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century (2013); the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 3rd Edition (2011); Review of the Scientific Approaches
ANNE-MARIE MAZZA, Ph.D., is the senior director of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. Dr. Mazza joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 1995. She has served as senior program officer with both the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy and the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable. In 1999 she was named the first director of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, a newly created activity designed to foster communication and analysis among scientists, engineers, and members of the legal community. Dr. Mazza has been the study director on numerous National Academies’ reports, including International Summit on Human Gene Editing: A Global Discussion (2015); Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification (2014); Positioning Synthetic Biology to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century (2013); Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 3rd Edition (2011); Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters (2011); Managing University Intellectual Property in the Public Interest (2010); Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (2009); Science and Security in a Post 9/11 World (2007); Reaping the Benefits of Genomic and Proteomic Research: Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation, and Public Health (2005); and Intentional Human Dosing Studies for EPA Regulatory Purposes: Scientific and Ethical Issues (2004). Between October 1999 and October 2000, Dr. Mazza divided her time between the National Academies and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she served as a senior policy analyst responsible for issues associated with a Presidential Review Directive on the government-university research partnership. Before joining the National Academies, Dr. Mazza was a senior consultant with Resource Planning Corporation. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Mazza was awarded a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from George Washington University.
SCOTT T. WEIDMAN is the director of the Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications (BMSA). He joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 1989 with the Board on Mathematical Sciences and moved to the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology in 1992. In 1996 he established a new board to conduct annual peer reviews of the Army Research Laboratory, which conducts a broad array of science, engineering, and
human factors research and analysis, and he later directed a similar board that reviews the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dr. Weidman has been full time with the BMSA since mid-2004. During his National Academies’ career, he has staffed studies on a wide variety of topics related to mathematical, chemical, and materials sciences, laboratory assessment, risk analysis, and science and technology policy. His current focus is on building up the National Academies’ capabilities and portfolio related to all areas of analysis and computational science. He holds bachelor degrees in mathematics and materials science from Northwestern University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mathematics from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the National Academies, he had positions with General Electric, General Accident Insurance Company, Exxon Research and Engineering, and MRJ, Inc.
KAROLINA KONARZEWSKA is program coordinator for the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. She is a master’s student of economics at George Mason University. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Prior to joining the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, she worked at various research institutions in Washington, D.C., where she covered political and economic issues pertaining to Europe, Russia, and Eurasia.
