Nineteenth Annual Darwin College Lecture Series 2004
Lecture 7 : February 27th 2004
Statistics and the Law
Philip Dawid
Pearson Professor of Statistics at University College London
Biography
Philip Dawid is Pearson Professor of Statistics at
University College London. He has published around 120 research
papers on theoretical and applied statistics. His jointly authored
book em Probabilistic Networks and Expert Systems won the 2002 DeGroot
Prize for a Published Book in Statistical Science. In 2000 he served
as President of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.
In 1966, following a first degree in Mathematics, Philip Dawid joined
Darwin College Cambridge as one of its first graduate students,
studying for a Diploma in Mathematical Statistics. Naively
expecting this to open up lucrative employment opportunities, he found
himself fascinated by the logical challenges and ferocious
controversies pervading the subject, and became an academic instead.
He was rapidly converted to the subjective approach to probability and
statistics pioneered by the 18th Century nonconformist minister Thomas
Bayes, and has since used this as a basis for his wide-ranging
investigations into the foundations and applications of reasoning
under uncertainty.
He has long had an active interest in the structuring and
interpretation of legal evidence. This has led to service as an
expert witness or adviser in a number of court cases, including the
recent case of Sally Clark. He currently heads an international team
of statisticians, mathematicians, epidemiologists and forensic
scientists who are developing Bayesian expert systems to solve complex
cases of forensic identification from DNA profiles.
These legally inspired investigations have also highlighted the many
logical subtleties and pitfalls that beset evidential reasoning more
generally. To address these he has this year established a
multidisciplinary research programme on Evidence, Inference and
Enquiry at University College London. This is bringing together
researchers from a wide diversity of disciplinary backgrounds to seek
out common ground, to advance understandings, and to improve the
handling of evidence.
The lectures are given at 5.30 p.m. in The Lady Mitchell Hall,
Sidgwick Avenue, with an adjacent overflow theatre with live TV
coverage. Each lecture is typically attended by 600 people so you
must arrive early to ensure a place.
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