Samuel Wang

Professor of Neuroscience

sswang@princeton.edu

Sam Wang has been a member of the Princeton faculty since 2000. He holds a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (1986) and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine (1993). A central feature of his laboratory research is the use and development of statistical tools for dealing with large, complex data sets, especially in regard to individual variation. In 2015, he was appointed by Governor Chris Christie to the New Jersey Governor's Council on Medical Research and Treatment of Autism.

Sam has a long-standing interest in elections. He pioneered statistical methods for analyzing U.S. presidential elections in 2004, when he developed tools for the aggregation of state polls. These tools led to the establishment of the Princeton Election Consortium. In 2012 he recognized new, systematic distortions in representation in the U.S. House. Understanding the causes of these distortions launched his interest in voting rights and led to the creation of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

Sam Wang's laboratory research focuses on learning from birth to adulthood, at levels ranging from single synapses to the whole brain. He is particularly curious about novel roles for the cerebellum in cognition, social thought processes, and autism. He studies these brain functions using optical neural imaging and big-data approaches to analyzing behavior. Sam is also the author of two popular books about the brain: Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life (2008) and Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College (2011). Both books are available in over 20 languages.

Jonathan Cervas

Research Associate

cervas@cmu.edu

Jonathan Cervas serves as Research Associate for the Princeton Gerrymandering Project. His projects include writing academic articles on communities of interest, overseeing the Initiative’s mapping project, and creating demonstrative redistricting plans for legislatures and commissions. Jonathan will also be co-teaching a class with Professor Wang on redistricting and gerrymandering for Spring 2021.

Jonathan has served as assistant to the special master in three federal court cases, including Bethune-Hill vs. VA Board of Election, where he, along with Bernard Grofman, redrew 25% of the Virginia state legislature. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a masters and PhD from the University of California Irvine. Jonathan specializes in American politics and has published in numerous scholarly journals on the Electoral College and Redistricting.

Rick Ober

Legal Analyst

rober@princeton.edu

Rick, a volunteer with the Project, analyzes existing state laws and proposed state-level reforms for their ability to prevent gerrymandering and improve democracy. He has coauthored law review articles in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Stanford Journal of  Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Albany Law Review and University of New Hampshire Law Review as well as articles in the Washington Post, The American Prospect, and other newspapers with Professor Wang and served on the staff for the 2023 New Jersey Legislative Apportionment Commission, which passed the first bipartisan N.J. legislative map in recent history.  He has published multiple articles on nonprofit governance and risk management, listed on his LinkedIn page.

Rick also serves as Vice President and Chair of the Legislative Action and Advocacy Committee of the Organization of Residents Associations of New Jersey [ORANJ], representing the 9,200 residents of life plan communities [CCRCs], including himself.  

Rick previously worked as E.V.P. & General Counsel of United Jersey Banks/Summit Bancorp (1975-2001) and General Counsel of TerraCycle, Inc. and Isles, Inc. His long-term interest in politics is reflected in previous roles as Research Director for the New Jersey campaign staffs of Dick Zimmer for U.S. Senate and DeForest "Buster" Soaries for U.S. House of Representatives, and over 30 years as a County Committeeman, Fire Commissioner, and intern at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Improvements in Judicial Machinery.

His honors include the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award – Points of Light – with special commitment to Veterans and Military Families in 2013 and 2014, and the first New Jersey Corporate Counsel Award Diversity Award to his Legal Department in 1997.  His professional activities include President of the N.J. Corporate Counsel Assn., Chair of the N.J. State Bar Assn. Banking Law Section, Chair of the American Bankers Assn. Bank Counsel Advisory Committee, and Chair of the N.J. Bankers Assn. Bank Lawyers Council and Legislation & Taxation Committee.

Rick holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and has been admitted as an attorney in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

Keena Lipsitz

Affiliate

keena.lipsitz@qc.cuny.edu

Keena Lipsitz is a professor of political science at Queens College and The Graduate Center. She conducts research on campaigns and elections in the US. Her research has been published in numerous journals including PNAS, Political Behavior,_ and _Journal of Political Philosophy, _and she has authored or co-authored several books, including _Competitive Elections and the American Voter and Campaigns and Elections. 

Kyle Barnes

Affiliate

kyletuhr@gmail.com

Kyle Barnes is Executive Director of Representable. He and a group of computer science students created Representable as a class project at Princeton University. The project grew rapidly, and he has played a central role in shepherding its development. Kyle, a former champion figure skater, is now a fellow at Schmidt Futures.

Ethan Arsht

Intern

ethanarsht@gmail.com

Ethan Arsht is a student in the Masters of Computational Applied Public Policy program at the University of Chicago. Previously, he was the Data & Strategy Adviser for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, working out of Brussels, Belgium. Ethan enjoys cycling, watching sports, and trivia. He speaks English, some French, and he's working on his Hindi. After graduating from his master's degree, he hopes to be a geospatial data scientist.

Hayden Goldberg

Intern

hayden.goldberg@gmail.com

Hayden is a recent graduate from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics. He is passionate about voting rights, improving representation, and increasing voter participation. Hayden is seeking a career in election law to reduce barriers to voting and help ensure that everyone's vote counts. Various leadership experiences have taught him the importance of data-driven decision making and a constraints-based mindset, which both inform his leadership style. As a leader and future policymaker, he believes that contemporary decision-making must be informed by history.