The Center for Science & Law brings together data scientists, neuroscientists, legal scholars, programmers, ethicists, judges, and policymakers with aim to harness scientific advances to construct a cost-effective legal system with higher utility and lower cost.
We focus on developing new technologies that can directly interact with the criminal justice system in a novel and more effective way.
Educational Affiliations
David Eagleman, PhD
David is an adjunct professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the writer and presenter of The Brain, an international 6-hour television series that asks what it means to be human from a neuroscientist's point of view. He has authored several books on neuroscience, including the New York Times bestseller Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, which introduced the issues of neurolaw into the public dialogue. David regularly speaks on neurolaw on NPR, BBC, and CNN, and has been profiled in venues from the New Yorker to the Colbert Report. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a council member on the World Economic Forum, a research fellow in the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and a board member of The Long Now Foundation.
Gabe Haarsma, PhD
Gabe spearheads the Center's big data analysis of millions of crime records. He was trained as a chemical engineer with a specialization in Process Control. This experience exposed Gabe to his love of data analysis, visualization and mathematical model building. Gabe spends his days coding in the statistical language R to analyze and visualize patterns of crime and recidivism.
Sasha Davenport
Sasha's background is in neuroscience, law, and business. While a McNair Scholar, she researched psychological coercion, interrogations, false confessions, and worked with adult and juveniles in Rikers Island. Her research began to focus on neuroscience, and her work on brain science & tactical warfare was presented at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Prior research projects ranged from studying neurogenesis & memory in songbirds, to exploring empathy and aggression neural networks using fMRI. Sasha is currently an MBA candidate, and pursuing neuroscience doctoral studies.
Seán Patrick Judge
Seán is the Lab Manager, bringing organization and sanity to the activities here. Outside the lab, he is one of Houston's most sought-after actors. Seán has always been fascinated by the inner workings of the human brain, and thrives as part of an exciting research environment.
Philip Abraham
Philip's experience before coming to CSL was in the oil and gas industry as a Chemical Engineer. His passion for applied mathematics and physics led him to the field of data science, thereby obtaining his data science certification from Johns Hopkins University. As a Data Scientist, Philip is engaged in building risk prediction and social network analysis models to study the impact of criminal decision making, and the propensity towards criminal activity, imprisonment and recidivism. In his free time, Philip can often be found hiking the Cascade ranges of Washington and Oregon with his wife. He is also a tenacious weather and space nerd, and uses his data science skills to probe the mysteries of the universe.
Devonte White
Devonte is a student at Texas Southern University pursuing a PhD in Administration of Justice. His research interests include crime in the NFL with a focus on domestic violence and repeat offenders. He received a BA in Criminology from Florida State University in 2014 and MA in Criminal Justice from Florida A&M University in 2015. Devonte is currently interning with the Federal Bureau of Investigations on the Human Trafficking/Civil Rights Squad.
Board of Directors
David M. Eagleman, PhD
Founding Director
Pablo A. Ormachea, JD
Data Scientist
Leslie Ribnik, JD
Attorney at Law
Amanda C. Pustilnik, JD
Professor, University of Maryland School of Law
Tobey Forney, JD
Attorney at Law
Eyal Aharoni, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Georgia State University
Francis X. Shen, JD, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School, Director, Shen Neurolaw Lab, Executive Director of the Harvard MGH Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior
Advisors
Doak Bishop, JD
Senior Partner, King and Spalding
Baruch Brody, PhD
Former Director, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine
Peter De Leef, JD
Defense Attorney, De Leef Law
David Dow, JD
Distinguished Professor, University of Houston Law Center // Founder, Texas Innocence Network
J. Ray Hays, PhD, JD
Clinical Psychologist, Ben Taub Hospital // Menninger Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine
Amir Halevy, MD, JD
Attorney at Baker Botts // Former Professor of Internal Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Neil Kurlander
Former Chief of Police, Maryland Heights, Missouri
Laura Marsh, MD
Mental Health Care Line Executive, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center // Professor, Meninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine
Craig Iscoe, JD, LLM
Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia // Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown Law School
John Mixon, JD
Law Alumni Professor, University of Houston Law Center
William Winslade, Phd, JD
Professor of Philosophy of Medicine, Institute for Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch
Barry Scheck, JD
Director, The Innocence Project // Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Affiliates
Benjamin Bumann, JD
Research Fellow, Associate, McCafferty & Company
Joseph Kass, JD, MDResearch Associate
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medical Ethics, Baylor College of Medicine
Sarah Isgur Flores, JDResearch Fellow
Associate, Oaks, Hartline, and Daly
Daniel S. Goldberg, JD, PhDResearch Associate
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioethics and Interdisciplinary Studies, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University
Jennie Choe, MS
Research Fellow, Medical Student, Yale Medical School
Adam Kolber, JDResearch Associate
Professor, Brooklyn Law School // Founder, Center for Health, Science, and Public Policy
Amy McGuire, JD, PhDResearch Associate
Director, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine
Andrea Nelson, MDResearch Fellow
Psychiatry Resident, Baylor College of Medicine
Federico Gustavo PizzettiFaculty Associate
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Milan
Jayme Reisler, JDResearch Fellow
Attorney at Law
JP Singh, JDResearch Fellow
Associate, Oaks, Hartline, and Daly
Tamara Tabo, JDResearch Fellow
Instructor, Center for Legal Pedagogy, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University
Daisy Thompson-LakeResearch Fellow
Clinical Research Manager, Baylor College of Medicine