Francis Shen is an interdisciplinary scholar who conducts empirical research on legal policy in the domains of crime, torts, and education. Most recently, he was a Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt University Law School and Associate Director of the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. Prior to that, he was a Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Harvard Government Department. He has also served as a Statistical Consultant on numerous education policy evaluations.

Using statistical and experimental methods, as well as insights from the mind sciences, Professor Shen generates original data and analysis to answer legal and policy-relevant questions. He has published numerous articles and book chapters, including being the lead author on the forthcoming article, Sorting Guilty Minds, to appear in the NYU Law Review. Professor Shen has also co-written two books: The Education Mayor: Improving America’s Schools (2007, Georgetown University Press) and The Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities (2010 Oxford University Press). With co-authors, he is also developing the first law casebook on Law and Neuroscience (forthcoming, Aspen Publishers).