People

Sandy L. Zabell

Professor of Statistics and Mathematics

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Ph.D., 1974, Harvard University

zabell@math.northwestern.edu

Research Interests

My principal research interests revolve around mathematical probability (in particular, large deviation theory) and Bayesian statistics (in particular, the study of exchangeability). I am also interested in the history, philosophical foundations, and legal applications of probability and statistics.

My primary applied interest is DNA identification evidence, and more generally the use of science in law.  I currently serve on a National Academy of Sciences committee charged with the revision of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.

Recent Publications

Symmetry and its Discontents.  Book, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Fingerprint evidence. Journal of Law and Policy (Brooklyn College Law School), 13 (2005) pp. 143-79.

Richard von Mises and the "Problem of Two Races": a statistical satire in 1934. Historia Mathematica 34 (2007), pp. 206--220 (with R. Siegmund-Schultze).

Carnap on probability and induction. Chapter, The Cambridge Companion to Carnap (R. Creath and M. Freedman, eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 273--294.

On Student's 1908 paper "The probable error of the mean". Special invited paper, Journal of the American Statistical Association 103 (2008), pp.1--7.