The series offers students and the public a chance to hear from experienced speakers representing the specialized areas of forensic science.
Seminars are held every Friday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Pastore Hall, Room 12, 45 Upper College Road. The talks are free and open to the public.
The schedule is as follows:
• Sept. 7, Albert Kausch, URI professor and director of the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory and founder and president of lifeedu.org- URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences, “DNA Based Forensics and DNA Databasing.”
• Sept. 14, Dennis Hilliard, director of the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory at URI and an adjunct professor of biomedical sciences at URI’s College of Pharmacy, “Basic Forensics.”
• Sept. 21, Marc Tobias, investigative attorney and lock specialist- Sioux Falls, S.D., “Lock, Guns, & Lies.”
• Sept. 28, Michael Coble, director of research at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory-National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Historical Investigations using Forensic DNA Markers.”
• Oct. 5, Michael DiLauro, assistant public defender- Rhode Island Public Defender’s Office, “When the Criminal Justice System Fails: Recent Efforts at Reform in Rhode Island & Elsewhere.”
• Oct. 12, Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist- Penn State Medical Examiner’s Office, “Challenges for the Forensic Pathologist.”
• Oct.19, David Benjamin, clinical pharmacologist and forensic toxicologist- private consultant in Chestnut Hill, Mass, “Forensic Technology.”
• Oct.26, Rick Lautenbach, lab director of Target Forensic Services- Target Forensic Lab. “ Target: Inside Our Forensic Services Laboratory.”
• Nov.2, Elaine Pagliaro, acting director- Connecticut State Crime Laboratory, “Forensic Challenges of Cold Cases?”
• Nov. 9, Gerald Durand, forensic detective- Woonsocket Police Department.
• Nov. 16, Chris Rigopoulos, FBI Special Agent, “Explosives at the FBI.”
• Nov. 30, Elizabeth Fontaine, Latent Fingerprint Expert- FBI, “From URI to FBI.”
This press release was written by Tess Povar, a public relations and communication studies major interning in the Department of Communications and Marketing.