Table of contents

What

The series is four lectures.
When Thursday 3-4:30pm March 6 & 13, April 10 & 17
Where Boalt room 10 (enter from law school courtyard on upper Bancroft under the Cardoza quotation). parking advice
Who Anyone is welcome. Participants should have aptitude for reasoning, mathematics, and science.
Content As mentioned here; largely from my own work.
Fees None.
Registration Informal, but please email cbrenner at berkeley dot edu to reserve a place (and to help me prepare).

Arrive at least by 2:55 to claim your reserved place. ∃ 32 seats

    Registration email please
  • tell me percentage chance you will come to the first lecture
  • how much and what education or expertise you have in mathematics, genetics, computation, computational biology, incarceration, or other connection to the subject as described here
Prerequisites Sufficient mathematical aptitude to understand probability concepts through Bayes’ theorem.
Homework, grades, credit & required reading None, but I will make recommendations where possible. For a start, see DNA Identification Technology and APL and my web site.
Parking Safest is probably the very punctual (I'm told) half-hourly law school shuttle service from the Human Rights Center at 2850 Telegraph, Berkeley (pay parking lot behind). That's 1 mile away, so even if you don't see the shuttle as expected at 2:30 for 2:35 departure, walking would probably work.

Alternatively you might find a 2-hour metered spot on upper Bancroft (i.e. essentially in front of the law school) at that hour, but of course not guaranteed. Hence if approaching the university from the uphill (=East) side via Piedmont and turning West onto Bancroft, I would grab any spot I see.

The parking situation is similar on the North side of campus, i.e. Hearst, which entails a 15 minute walk across campus.

Probable outline
  1. Background in math & genetics — March 6
    • (Forensic) genetics: genetic rules; forensic markers
    • Forensic mathematics: models, probability, likelihood ratio, Bayes, in-class exercises, simple stain matching
    • Forensic mathematics tale
  2. Kinship — March 13
    • Paternity; body ID
    • Mass ID, Familial searching
  3. Mixed stain analysis — April 10
    • The impossible goal: simple but adequate
    • History — “exclusion” & “likelihood ratio” methods
    • "Continuous" approach
  4. Y & mitochondrial haplotypes — April 17
    • Fundamental problem — atomic matching probability
    • models
    • challenges
    • Brenner's Law

Lectures in Forensic Mathematics for the Public

Forensic mathematics means the mathematics of evidence. In practice the subject is identification through DNA evidence because that’s what I enjoy and do. More than any other forensic area DNA identification offers scope for explicit mathematical treatment.

Emphasis is on the practical but with necessary forays into theory. Examples will come from particular cases or situations typical in casework, anecdotes from fieldwork and the courtroom.


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