{"id":112107,"date":"2026-11-13T17:23:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=112107"},"modified":"2026-11-13T17:23:57","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:23:57","slug":"fbi-senior-explosives-examiner-kirk-yeager-returns-to-uri-to-deliver-nov-20-forensic-series-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/11\/fbi-senior-explosives-examiner-kirk-yeager-returns-to-uri-to-deliver-nov-20-forensic-series-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI senior explosives examiner Kirk Yeager returns to URI to deliver Nov. 20 Forensic Series lecture\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Nov. 13, 2026 \u2013 Kirk Yeager, senior forensic examiner of explosives for the FBI, will return to the University of Rhode Island for the 13th time on <strong>Friday, Nov. 20<\/strong>, to discuss explosive topics and literature as part of the University\u2019s ongoing fall Forensic Science Partnership lecture series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeager\u2019s lecture, titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chm.uri.edu\/uriforensics\/seminars.php\">Whatever happened to Ragnar<\/a>?,\u201d will be held in Room 100 of the Richard E. Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences, 140 Flagg Road, on the Kingston Campus. Yeager will talk about Ragnar Benson, the survivalist author who penned books on explosives that were frequently investigated by federal authorities. Books by Benson\u2014which wasn\u2019t the author\u2019s real name\u2014were pulled from mainstream distribution after Congress passed legislation restricting the distribution of explosives-making manuals with intent to commit crimes following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lecture series welcomes many speakers representing specialized areas of forensic science who present their real-life experiences within their fields. The seminars are offered for credit but are also open to the public at no cost. Those who cannot attend in person may view Yeager\u2019s lecture <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chm.uri.edu\/uriforensics\/seminars.php\">live online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeager, a <a href=\"https:\/\/uri.hosted.panopto.com\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=f14dcffd-e329-4e8e-a93f-b36e00faeaf1\">frequent speaker<\/a> during URI\u2019s annual Forensic Science lecture series, has more than 30 years\u2019 experience with explosives and improvised explosive devices. He has presented more than 250 lectures at conferences and international meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeager has worked for the FBI since 2000. In that time, he analyzed several high-profile cases, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and the deadly explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems manufacturing plant in Tennessee in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeager\u2019s lecture will be followed by a talk on Dec. 4 by Gregory Emerson, forensic scientist for the Rhode Island Department of Health, about forensic drug analysis. A Dec. 11 talk by Chicago-based attorney Gil Sapir on forensic science and expert witness testimony will conclude the series\u2019 fall schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A full schedule and past recorded lectures can be found on <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chm.uri.edu\/uriforensics\/seminars.php\"><em>the URI Forensic Science Partnership\u2019s website<\/em><\/a><em>. To be added to the Forensic Science Seminar Series\u2019 email list, contact james.bessette@uri.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Nov. 13, 2026 \u2013 Kirk Yeager, senior forensic examiner of explosives for the FBI, will return to the University of Rhode Island for the 13th time on Friday, Nov. 20, to discuss explosive topics and literature as part of the University\u2019s ongoing fall Forensic Science Partnership lecture series. Yeager\u2019s lecture, titled \u201cWhatever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":112108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1913,1912],"class_list":["post-112107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-public-engagement","tag-special-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112109,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112107\/revisions\/112109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}