CSAFE post-doctoral researcher Samantha Tyner from Iowa State University was featured in the January 2018 Science Magazine edition of NextGen Voices. This initiative calls upon young scientists from all disciplines to make their ideas known.
To kick off 2018, NextGen Voices asked early-career scientists from around the world to submit New Year’s resolutions for their fields. Participants described one thing their field’s research community could do better in the coming year. Tyner’s response focuses on the critical importance of improved communication in forensic statistics, a central mission of CSAFE.
“In the field of forensic statistics, we need to do a better job of communicating with the practitioners, lawyers, and judges whose use of forensic science can change the course of people’s lives. Professionals in the forensic and legal fields, as the world recently learned when a U.S. Supreme Court justice compared some mathematical formulae to his steak rub recipe, are often woefully innumerate, which can lead to miscarriages of justice. It is our responsibility as statisticians to communicate findings in a way that can be understood by legal and forensic professionals, while working with them to improve forensic science techniques and the discussion of such techniques in the courtroom,” Tyner said.
Read all participants New Year’s Resolutions in Science Magazine.
