Melvin Ott is a statistician, data scientist, and educator with more than three decades of experience spanning academic instruction, applied research, predictive modeling, and expert testimony. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor in the MS in Data Science program at Northwestern University, where his courses integrate classical statistical methods with modern machine learning and emerging quantum computing applications. He is also Founder and President of Melvin Ott & Associates, a firm providing statistical consulting and expert witness services to legal, healthcare, financial, and government clients.
Over his career, Dr. Ott has held statistical and data leadership roles at organizations including Sacred Heart Medical Center, Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, and Ingenix, Inc., where he developed predictive models, reimbursement systems, and clinical quality analyses that produced significant operational and cost savings. His academic appointments have included Northwestern University, Gonzaga University, and several other Pacific Northwest institutions, where he has taught statistics, predictive modeling, and market research at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
As an expert witness, Dr. Ott has been approved and testified in both state and federal court in civil and criminal proceedings, including class-action, discrimination, healthcare, and financial cases. His analyses have involved transaction datasets spanning tens to over one hundred million records, and his consulting work has supported national banking studies, healthcare policy, and environmental and regulatory matters.
Dr. Ott holds a PhD in Statistics/Operations Research from Oregon State University, an MS in Mathematics from Utah State University, and a BS in Mathematics/Science from Eastern Oregon University. He has been recognized with a gubernatorial appointment as Regional Coordinator for the Superconducting Supercollider bid, election as Publications Officer of the ASA Health Policy Statistics Section, and service on the Executive Committee of the Eastern Oregon University Foundation.
