Francis Shen
- Professor of Law
- Solly Robins Distinguished Research Fellow
Degrees
- University of Chicago, B.A.
- Harvard Law School, J.D.
- Harvard University, Ph.D.
Expertise
- American Political System
- Criminal Law
- Empirical Legal Studies
- Law & Neuroscience
- Medicine & Law
- Science & Law
Professor Francis X. Shen is an expert at the intersection of law and neuroscience, as well as law and artificial intelligence. He is a Member of the Faculty of the UMN Graduate Program in Neuroscience, and Co-Chair of the UMN Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences. He directs the Shen Neurolaw Lab, whose motto is: Every story is a brain story.
Dr. Shen is building the new field of law and neuroscience, and conducts empirical, legal, and ethical research to examine how insights from neuroscience and artificial intelligence can make the legal system more just and effective. He also explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of advances in neurotechnology. He has co-authored 4 books, including the first Law and Neuroscience casebook (Aspen, with Jones and Schall), with a 5th book under contract with MIT Press / Penguin Random House. In 2021, he was awarded the Early Career Scholars Medal by the American Law Institute, one of two medals awarded every other year by the ALI. In announcing the award, the ALI recognized Francis as “a pioneer in establishing the interdisciplinary field of law and neuroscience.”
In the classroom, Professor Shen has taught Criminal Law, Evidence, Introduction to American Law, Law & Neuroscience, Law & Artificial Intelligence, and Education Law. He has provided judicial education and training in programs sponsored by organizations such as the Federal Judicial Center, National Judicial College, American Bar Association, National Association of State Judicial Educators, American Judges Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A prodigious fundraiser, Dr. Shen’s work has been supported by the NIH, NSF, multiple foundations, and private philanthropy. He currently co-leads two NIH BRAIN Initiative grants, one on portable MRI and one on community engagement in neuroimaging research. He is also the Founding Director of the Dana Foundation Career Network on Neuroscience & Society (neuroXcareers.org).
Professor Shen is active in many areas of law and neuroscience. He founded and directs the Law & Neuroscience Works in Progress Workshop for younger scholars, he serves pro bono as Chief Innovation Officer of the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at MGH. He is also a member of the Teaching Faculty of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, where he has taught Law, Ethics & Neuroscience and Bioethics and Artificial Intelligence.
Professor Shen joined the faculty as an associate professor in 2012. He previously served as Executive Director of Education and Outreach for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience.
Professor Shen completed his B.A. in economics and English at the University of Chicago in 2000, his J.D. at Harvard Law School in 2006, and his Ph.D. in government and social policy at Harvard University and the Kennedy School of Government in 2008. During graduate school he was a doctoral fellow in the Harvard University Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality & Social Policy, supported by the National Science Foundation. From 2007-09, he was a teaching fellow, lecturer, and assistant director of undergraduate studies in the Harvard Department of Government and received five Certificates of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard's Derek Bok Center.
In 2009 he joined the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project, at the University of California Santa Barbara, as a post-doctoral research fellow. In 2010-11 he became associate director of the Project and a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt Law School. In 2011-12 he was a visiting assistant professor at Tulane University Law School and The Murphy Institute.
