Maria Cuellar

Maria Cuellar is a PhD student in the joint Statistics and Public Policy program at Carnegie Mellon University, under the mentorship of Stephen E. Fienberg and Jay B. Kadane. Her research is at the intersection of public policy and human rights, focusing on causation in legal contexts using innovative frameworks. Maria has delved into topics such as evaluating the use of scientific evidence in cases like Shaken Baby Syndrome and mitigating contextual bias in forensic analysis through experimental design. She is keen on survey methodology for hard-to-reach populations, employing techniques like network sampling and capture-recapture. With a background in physics, Maria's undergraduate thesis explored dark matter distributions using weak gravitational lensing. Prior to her doctoral studies, she spearheaded the development of Bus ConCiencia, a mobile science laboratory enhancing science education in remote Chilean schools. Maria also contributed to social program evaluation at JPAL, the MIT Poverty Action Lab, where she led the implementation of a randomized controlled trial, gaining valuable experience in survey logistics.