Christopher Saunders

Title

Professor of Statistics / NRM Affiliate Professor

Office Building

Chicoine Architecture, Mathematics and Engineering Hall

Office

250

Mailing Address

Chicoine Architecture, Math and Engineering Building 250
Math and Statistics-Box 2225
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007

Education

• Visiting scientist with the FBI Labs Forensic Science Research | 2013
• Intelligence Community Fellow | George Mason University | 2008
• Ph.D. in statistics | University of Kentucky | 2006
• M.S. in statistics | University of Kentucky | 2002
• B.S. in mathematics | California State University, Chico | 2000

Academic Interests

• Mathematical statistics and experimental design
• Nonparametric statistical methods and applications
• Statistical pattern recognition and machine learning
• Interpretation and presentation of evidence

Awards and Honors

• 2020, Outstanding Researcher, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering
• 2016, Young Investigator Award, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering
• 2014, MITRE Distinguished Paper Award for A Structured Approach for Rapidly Mapping and Multi-Level System Measures via Simulation Metamodeling”
• Two Statistical and Engineering Support to the Veteran's Administration Awards s part of a team of MITRE engineers prototyping software and algorithms that support situational awareness for crisis management and disaster preparedness
• Fall 2012, Outstanding Grantee Award, South Dakota State University

Grants

1. South Dakota Center for Understanding and Disrupting the Illicit Economy, Support for a graduate student in forensic statistics, 2021-2026.
2. The Center for Security Printing and Anti-Counterfeiting Technology, National Science Foundation, National Research Trainee Program and Research Experience for Undergraduates. Funding for one graduate fellow and an undergraduate to work on forensic source identification for 2021-2022.
3. Funded as a research assistant professor by Gannon Technologies (with Donald T. Gantz-PI and John J. Miller-co-PI), George Mason University, 2008-2009.
4. Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award, Donald T. Gantz (PI), George Mason University, 2006-2008, $240,000.
5. Graduate Research Assistant in Thomas Getchell's Lab in the Sanders Brown Center on Aging, National Institute of Health Training Grant, University of Kentucky, 2005.
6. Microarray Core Facility Graduate Research Assistant, Arnold Stromberg (co-PI), University of Kentucky, 2003-2006.
7. Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award, Eric Kalendra as Research Fellow, Christopher Saunders PI, 2010-2012, $240,000.
8. “Quantifying the Effects of Database Size and Sample Quality on Measures of Individualization Validity and Accuracy in Forensics,” National Institute of Justice Grant Award, Christopher Saunders PI, Linda Davis co-PI, 2010-2014, $974,981.
9. “Decomposition-Based Information Elicitation and Aggregation,” Aggregative Contingent Estimation (ACE) Program, Broad Agency Announcement IARPA-BAA-10-05, Charles Twardy PI, Kathryn B Laskey co-PI, Christopher Saunders co-PI, $8,200,000. (I had to step down as co-PI to accept my position with MITRE)
10. ORISE Visiting Scientist Award, summer funding to support the work of the Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit of the FBI Labs. Summer 2013.
11. “Foundational Research into the Quantification of the Value of Forensic Evidence for Complex Evidential Forms arising from Impression and Pattern Evidence,” National Institute of Justice Grant Award, Christopher Saunders and Cedric Neumann as Joint PI’s. 2014-2018, $780,301.
12. "Algorithm Development," Sponsored by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, Federal, Saunders, March 22, 2017 - December 31, 2017, $35,366.
13. “Kinematic Validation of FDE Determinations about Writership in Questioned Handprinting and Handwriting,” National Institute of Justice Grant Award, Michael Caligiuri (PI) Christopher Saunders (PI on the sub-award). 2018-2019, $187,239 in spending authority, Award 2017-DN-BX-0148, We have requested 6-month extension with an additional ~$30,000 in spending authority to focus on machine learning aspects of project.
14. “Statistical Infrastructure for the Use of Error Rate Studies in the Interpretation of Forensic Evidence," NIJ- 2018-DU-BX-0228 (Sub award from ISU and GMU, January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019, $50,983.
15. "Forensic Statistics Research.” National Institute of Justice in support of two grant awards that are routed though Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, Federal, Saunders (PI on sub-contract with $104,968 in spending authority. (September 2019 - May 2021).  This was awarded as two distinct awards, due to the FFRDC status of MIT-LL the grants awards were pooled together and transferred from DoJ to DoD.  Original Award Numbers- NIJ 2018-DU-BX-0193 (Post-Blast Explosives Attribution, Dr. Dettman, PI) and NIJ 2018-DU-BX-0192 (Persistence of Touch DNA for Forensic Analysis, Dr. Ramsey, PI)
16. “Accounting for Covariates in Forensic Error Rate Assessment and Evidence Interpretation.” National Institute of Justice, Award # 2019-DU-BX-0011, Dr. Tang, GMU/UCF – PI on prime. Saunders PI on sub-award spending authority to be determined but will be for roughly 15% AY effort and 1-month summer support per year, 2 year award, $495,056.

Work Experience

• 2016-present, associate professor of statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, South Dakota State University.
• Summer 2015, gastprofessor, Department of Mathematics, University of Salzburg.
• 2015-2016, assistant professor of statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, South Dakota State University.
• 2011-2018, signal processing engineer lead, Washington Signal Processing Department, The MITRE Corporation.
• 2012, associate research professor, Applied Information Technology, George Mason University.
• 2008-June 2012, assistant research professor, Document Forensics Laboratory, Goerge Mason University.
• 2006-2008, IC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Document Forensics Laboratory, George Mason University.

Areas of Research

• Statistical learning theory
• Pattern recognition
• Forensic identification of source problems
• Categorical data analysis
• Statistical approximation theory
• Signal processing
• Large scale simulations
• Forecasting
• Biometrics
• Bioinformatics