Mark Myers

Summer 2012:  Statistical Inference in the Law

Course Description:  Over the past half-century, mathematics – in particular, probability and statistics – has played an increasingly important role in litigation in such diverse areas as employment discrimination, antitrust, intellectual property, medical treatment tort and criminal law.  Concurrently, the courts have struggled with this trend, partly embracing attempts at making precise statements about case details and, at the same time, cautious of the drawbacks inherent in applying mathematical abstraction to concrete issues in the courtroom.  

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the variety of ways that probability and statistics are used to construct legal arguments.  It is, however, not a mathematics course; the primary goal is not to teach the tools and techniques of statistics.  The course assumes only a high school level familiarly with basic mathematics.  Instead, the focus is on how legal arguments are constructed using statistical principles, together with the strengths – and weaknesses – of the reasoning that results.  

Prerequisites:   No college-level course in mathematics or economics is presumed or required.      Students will be asked to perform simple calculations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division assuming only knowledge of high school mathematics.

3 credits.   Course Meets: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 6:30-9:30 pm.  Enrollment limit: 30 students.  Starr Hall Room 108.

Mark Myers:  Mark Myers is a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Connecticut School of Law.   His area of interest is the application of quantitative methods in judicial proceedings, especially the use of probability and statistics.  Myers received his doctorate in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University and law degree from the University of Connecticut.  He is a member of the Connecticut Bar.

Education:

2008 University of Connecticut School of Law, Hartford, Connecticut
J.D.  (Juris Doctor), Certification in Intellectual Property Law
 
1994 Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics (Minor in Theoretical & Applied Mechanics)
 
1980 University of California, Irvine, California
B.S., Biological Sciences (Honors in Undergraduate Research)

Selected Seminars and Presentations:

• Invited Speaker, “May It Please the Court:  The Use of Mathematical Reasoning in the Courtroom,” University of Connecticut Department of Mathematics, November 16, 2011.
• Presenter, “Beyond Mere Invention:  Lawyering and the Creation of Wealth From Intellectual Property”, IP Seminar, University of Connecticut School of Law, October 15, 2010.
• Organizer, Valuation of Intellectual Property, Nerac Industry Roundtable Series (Palo Alto, CA; Boston, MA; Cambridge, England), May 2009.
• Presenter, “Assessing the Vulnerability of Electronic Security Systems,” Briefing at the Information & Decision Analysis Systems Engineering Workshop, Stanford University, 2004.   

   
Selected Journal Publications:

1. Guckenheimer, J., Myers, M. and B. Sturmfels, ‘Computing Hopf Bifurcations I’, SIAM Journal of Numerical Analysis, Vol. 34, No. 1 (1997)
2. Guckenheimer, J. and M. Myers, ‘Computing Hopf Bifurcations II: Three Examples from Neurophysiology,’ SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, Vol. 17, September (1996)
3. Myers, M., Holmes, P., Berkooz, G. and J. Elezaray, ‘Wavelet Projections of the Kuramoto-Shivashinsky Equation I:  Heteroclinic Cycles and Modulated Traveling Waves for Short Systems,’ Physica D, Vol.. 86 (1995)
4. Back, A., Guckenheimer, J. and M. Myers, ‘A Dynamical Simulation Facility for Hybrid Systems,’ Hybrid Systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series, Vol. 736 (1993

Memberships, Scholarly Societies:

Admitted to Practice Law in the State of Connecticut (CT Juris #432934)
American Bar Association (ABA)
Strategic & Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
American Statistical Association (ASA)
Society of Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM)