Columbia University in the City of New York

Nov 28, 20173:00 pm
Seminar

Reforming Forensic Science: Insights from Research on Vision and Memory

Featuring Thomas D. Albright, PhD, Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies

November 28th, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor lecture hall)

Register Here

In its 2009 report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, the National Academy of Sciences identified a number of significant weaknesses in forensic science, which have contributed to wrongful convictions and threaten public confidence in our criminal justice system.  These problems have prompted broad calls for reform in the ways that forensic evidence is acquired, analyzed and interpreted.  Several types of forensic analyses involve evaluation and comparison of complex visual patterns or memories of visual experiences.  Advances in understanding of brain systems for visual sensation, perception and memory can help shape forensic reform by illuminating the relevant sensory and cognitive processes, their limitations, and factors that can improve human performance in a forensic context.

Thomas D. Albright is Professor and Conrad T. Prebys Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California.  His laboratory seeks to understand the brain bases of visual perception, memory and visually-guided behavior.  Albright has made many contributions to our understanding of the organization and functions of the cerebral cortex and has pioneered investigations into the roles and mechanisms of contextual influences on visual processing.  Albright received a PhD in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Albright served as co-chair of the NAS Committee on Scientific Approaches to Eyewitness Identification, which produced the 2014 report Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification.  He is a member of the NAS Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and serves on the National Commission on Forensic Science, a federal advisory committee to the Department of Justice.

Faculty host: Mickey Goldberg, MD

Registration is strongly encouraged. Seating is limited.

For questions about the lecture, please contact [email protected]

Those who wish to meet the speaker during the visit should contact Dr. Goldberg.

 

This seminar is part of the Systems, Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Seminar Series at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, which focuses on cognition and decision making research. Internationally renowned speakers present their recent work on these topics using behavioral, neurobiological and computational approaches. Seminars take place approximately every other week on Tuesdays in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor).

Venue: the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor lecture hall)
3227 Broadway, New York NY 10027

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