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People
The Future of Forensic Science Initiative
Director
Sreetharan Kanthaswamy
Interim School Director
Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Forensics (SIF)
Sreetharan Kanthaswamy is Professor of Genetics and Director, Forensic Science Professional Science Masters (PSM) Program. His expertise is in population, forensic, and conservation genetics. His basic research aims to establish species-specific genetic markers for accurate identification and to enhance the population genetics database for each species. His forensic science research is based on the analyses of biological samples collected at crime scenes or from civil cases for DNA-typing. Besides providing educational and research opportunities for students in his laboratory, Dr Kanthaswamy also provides expert witness testimony on animal/veterinary forensic DNA analysis and casework review. Research website.
Executive Committee
The FFSI Executive committee works in partnership with the director and advisory board to develop and grow the initiative in line with its vision and mission. The executive committee consists of 2-3 faculty members who each serve a term of 3 years, along with an early career representative (postdoctoral scholar or graduate student). The committee meets 2-3 times per year to advance the initiative's strategic goals, and seeks regular input from and provides updates to the members of FFSI.
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Gwyneth Gordon
Assistant Research Professor of Isotope Geochemistry
School of Earth & Space Exploration
Gwyneth Gordon is Assistant Research Faculty in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and manages the METAL analytical facility. She applies analytical chemistry to forensic trace evidence, with particular expertise in isotope analysis. She works with forensic anthropologists to validate isotopes to infer travel history for human remains. She has also been a volunteer Crime Scene Specialist with the Mesa Police Department for more than ten years, providing unique crossover insights between academia and practitioners. Research website.
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Jonathan J. Parrott
Assistant Professor of Biology & Entomology
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Jonathan J. Parrott specializes in research centered on the use of molecular and ecological techniques to help reduce error, aid understanding, and improve time of death investigations from biological evidence. This work encompasses cross-disciplinary research including insect, human, and environmental analysis. Research website.
Tess M.S. Neal
Adjunct Faculty
School of Interdisciplinary Forensics (SIF)
Advisory Board
The FFSI Advisory Board provides counsel toward developing and growing the initiative in line with its vision and mission. The advisory board consists of 6 members who each serve a term of 3 years (with potential for renewal of term). The board meets once per year with the executive committee of FFSI to advise the initiative's strategic goals and activities.
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Michael J. Saks
Regents Professor of Law and Psychology
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Department of Psychology
Michael J. Saks is a Regents Professor of Law and Psychology and a faculty fellow with the Center for Law, Science and Innovation at ASU. His research interests focus on empirical studies of law and the legal system, evidence law, the law's use of science, and legal policy affecting medical patient safety. He has published more than 35 articles on forensic science, including a landmark paper in Science Magazine called "The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science" (2005). He provided testimony to the Congressionally-charged committee of the National Academy of Sciences that produced the historic 2009 report titled "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States.
Faculty Affiliates
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Jane Buikstra
Regents Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Jane Buikstra, a Regent's Professor and member of the National Academy of Sciences, is credited with forming the discipline of bioarchaeology, which applies biological anthropological methods to the study of archaeology. Her research encompasses bioarchaeology, paleopathology, forensic anthropology and paleodemography. Research website.
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Elly van Gelderen
Regents Professor of Linguistics
Department of English
Elly van Gelderen is a syntactician interested in language change. She studies syntactic change (grammaticalization and the linguistic cycle) and has examined a number of debates in theoretical syntax. Related interests are the evolution of language, biolinguistics, prescriptivism, authorship debates, forensic linguistics, and code switching. She occasionally teaches and lectures about forensic linguistics and linguistic evidence at ASU. Research website.
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Anne Stone
Regents Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Anne Stone, a Regents Professor and AAAS fellow, specializes in anthropological genetics. Her research focuses on population history and understanding how humans and the great apes have adapted to their environments. Her lines of work are cross-disciplinary, variously involving bioarcheological, molecular genetic, population genetic, and genomic analyses. Some of her work is applicable in forensic contexts, such as her collaborative work on forensic genetics, developing techniques for recovering DNA from burned and degraded bone. Research website.
Gary Marchant
Regents Professor of Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Director of the Center for Law, Science and Innovation
Gary Marchant's research and teaching interests include legal aspects of genomics and personalized medicine, the use of genetic information in environmental regulation, and governance of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, neuroscience, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. His PhD is in genetics and he graduated at the top of his class from Harvard Law School. He served on six National Academy of Science committees, served as principal investigator on several major grants, organized numerous academic conferences on law and science issues, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Research Website.
Gary Edmond
Professor of Law & Justice
School of Law, Society, & Criminology
Chair of the Evidence Based Forensic Initiative
University of New South Wales (PLuS Alliance Partner)
Gary Edmond directs the Program in Expertise, Evidence and Law at UNSW and is chair of the Evidence-Based Forensic Initiative. Originally trained in the history and philosophy of science, he subsequently studied law at the University of Sydney and took a PhD in law from the University of Cambridge. An active commentator on expert evidence in Australia, England, the US and Canada, he is a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences, a member of Standards Australia’s forensic science committee, a member of the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and served as an international adviser to the Goudge Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario (2007-2008). He is Chair of the Evidence-based forensics initiative (EBFI) and is co-author of Australian Evidence: A principled approach to the common law and the uniform acts (6th ed. LexisNexis, 2017). Research website.
Ariel D. Anbar
President’s Professor of Isotope Geochemistry
School of Earth & Space Exploration; School of Molecular Sciences
Ariel D. Anbar is a scientist and educator interested in Earth’s evolution as an inhabited world, and the prospects for life beyond. His work explores the biogeochemistry of metals in the middle of the periodic table, using isotopic and other methods. He develops and applies novel analytic techniques in isotope geochemistry (particularly mass spectrometry) to ancient sedimentary rocks to study the deep time history of O2 and bioessential metals in the oceans. Research website.
Patricia Friedrich
Professor of Sociolinguistics, Provost Fellow & Professor, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Patricia Friedrich is a sociolinguist whose interests include the politics of language and forensic linguistics, among other topics. She is the author/editor of ten books, including Applied Linguistics in the Real World (2019). She teaches classes in Sociolinguistics, History of the English Language, and Forensic Linguistics.
Christopher Stojanowski
Professor of Anthropology
Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Christopher Stojanowski is a bioarchaeologist who specializes in the analysis of human skeletal remains and dentition. He uses information from ancient sites to reconstruct the lives of past peoples. He is interested in dentition, generally, spatial analysis, and multivariate analysis of complex phenotypes. His fundamental work in bioarchaeology is occasionally applied to forensic contexts, such as his work in forensic biohistory.
Tony H. Grubesic
Professor of Geographic Information Science, Center Director
School of Geographical Science & Urban Planning
Tony H. Grubesic is the College Professor of Policy Analytics and the director of the Center for Spatial Reasoning and Policy Analytics at ASU. His research and teaching interests are in geographic information science, spatial analytics, regional development and public policy evaluation. He is currently PI on a collaborative and cross-disciplinary MURI-funded project to close basic research gaps in forensic palynology and improve the U.S. government’s ability to identify where and when weapons of destruction are moving by meaningfully geolocating pollen samples with inputs from DNA metabarcoding. Research website.
Kelly Knudson
Professor of Anthropology, Center Director
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Kelly Knudson directs of the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory at Arizona State University, where she and her research team apply biogeochemistry to anthropological research questions. She is also the director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research at Arizona State University. Her primary archeological research focuses on political integration and the intersections of different social identities in ancient peoples. She also conducts forensically-relevant research, such as collaborative work developing methods to use isotopic elements in hair to learn more about the history of an individual and to inform evidence preservation. Research website.
Subramaniam "Subby" Rajan
Professor of Civil, Aerospace, and Mechanical Engineering
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Subby Rajan's research focuses on modeling impact dynamics via laboratory experiments to characterize composite materials, building computational constitutive models for materials, and development of high-performance parallel computer code. The computer code is used in the simulation of impact events such as fan-blade out event in aircraft engines, crushing of automotive components, human head-football helmet collisions, and fracture of human bones. Research Website.
Eduardo Obregón Pagán
Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History and Associate Dean of Barrett, The Honors College
School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies
Eduardo Obregón Pagán is a versatile interdisciplinary historian who explores the complex experiences and interplay of the West’s many populations, including historical analyses of gun violence and murder. He has published in literary, geology, and sociology journals, and is the author of two scholarly history books. He is also an active public historian and has been featured on several domestic and international television shows and documentaries, such as hosting PBS's History Detectives. Research Website.
Douglas Sylvester
Professor of Law
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Dean Douglas Sylvester's work focuses on intellectual property law and commercialization, international law, emerging technologies, and privacy. He served as the 8th dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, which has reached historic heights under his leadership. In 2009, he served as moderator for the two-day "Forensic Science For the 21st Century: The National Academy of Sciences Report and Beyond" conference at ASU.
Henry F. ("Hank") Fradella
Professor of Justice Studies
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Henry F. ("Hank") Fradella researches the historical development of substantive, procedural, and evidentiary criminal law; the evaluation of law's effects on human behavior; the dynamics of legal decision-making; and the nature, sources, and consequences of variations and changes in legal institutions or processes. He has a master's degree in forensic science (in addition to a PhD and JD) and has written multiple books and academic articles about forensic science in courts. His forensically-relevant work has been cited in multiple judicial opinions in legal cases.
Pamela Marshall
Professor of Cellular Biology and Genetics
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Pamela Marshall's work focuses on the biogenesis and functions of a particular type of yeast vacuole as a model organism to study cellular responses. With undergraduate research assistants, she studies vacuolar protein trafficking, volutin granule formation, mathematical modeling of calcium homeostasis and gene networks, and microarray analysis of yeast with chronic losses of vacuolar function. She has collaborated with interdisciplinary teams to investigate scientific forensic questions, and co-leads an NSF iCURE on The Persistence of Latent Forensic Evidence. Research website.
Richard Hervig
Professor of Geochemistry
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Richard Hervig has developed new analytical techniques in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), applies SIMS to geochemistry and cosmochemistry problems, and has made significant improvements in instrument performance through implementation of novel designs. His collaborative research with electrical engineers has presented new ways of applying SIMS to problems in earth science. Besides training researchers in the use of SIMS, he also teaches classes in petrology, geochemistry, analytical instrumentation, and nuclear forensics to chemistry, engineering, and geology students. Research website.
José B. Ashford
Professor of Sociology and Social Work
School of Social Work
José B. Ashford directs the Office of Offender Diversion and Sentencing Solutions and the Office of Forensic Social Work Research and Training, and coordinates the Graduate Certificate in Criminal Sentencing and Sentencing Advocacy. His is widely published in areas dealing with the assessment, classification, and treatment of special need offenders, juvenile aftercare, recidivism prevention, mental health, and forensic social work. His research and training lab is located at the Arizona Justice Project in the Sandra Day O' Connor College of Law. He testifies around the country as an expert in the assessment of mitigating factors in capital murder cases and consults in sentencing and resentencing cases. Research website.
Kristy Martire
Associate Professor of Psychology
School of Psychology
Deputy Chair of the Evidence Based Forensic Initiative
University of New South Wales (PLuS Alliance Partner)
Kristy Martire's work examines the admissibility, expression, and assessment of forensic scientific evidence. Her work has been funded by grants from the Australian Research Council and has been cited in numerous standards, policies, law reform proposals, and legal outcomes internationally, including by the US Presidents' Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the US Department of Justice, and the UK Forensic Science Regulator. She is contributing to the development of forensic science practice standards as a member of Standards Australia, and works with the US Organization of Scientific Area Committees on human factors issues in the forensic sciences. She is a founding member and serves as Deputy Chair of the Evidence-Based Forensics Initiative. Research Website.
Keith E. Holbert
Associate Professor and Program Director
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering
Keith E. Holbert is the founding director of the Nuclear Power Generation Program. His research expertise is in the area of instrumentation and system diagnostics, including radiation effects on sensors, sensor fault detection, and noise analysis. In addition to his fundamental work in nuclear engineering, he has occasionally done work relevant to forensic contexts, such as a large technical project for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency called "Li-Ion Batteries for Forensic Neutron Dosimetry" which generated 6 academic papers, a symposium at IEEE Nuclear Science, and supported the mentorship of multiple undergraduate and graduate students. Research website.
Tricia Redeker-Hepner
Professor of Anthropology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tricia Redeker Hepner is a political and legal anthropologist with a regional focus in Africa, and thematic interests in migration and displacement, transnationalism, human rights, transitional justice, militarism, and conflict and peace. She directs ASU's M.A. Program in Social Justice and Human Rights, is a former Fulbright Scholar, and has had her work funded by multiple agencies. She has participated in hundreds of asylum and refugee cases, and her testimony has been influential in immigration rulings in the US, Canada, Europe, and Israel. She has collaborated with forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to examine the meanings and material impacts of the missing and unidentified dead in post-war Northern Uganda’s transitional justice process and to document improper burials in mass graves and former displacement camps. Research Website.
Nick Schweitzer
Associate Professor of Psychology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Nick Schweitzer is the director of ASU's Law and Behavioral Science group and an associate professor in ASU's School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His research focuses on how scientific information (e.g., medical experiments, psychological evaluations, forensic evidence, neuroscience, machine learning) is understood and used by decision makers, particularly in the legal system. Research website.
Jessica Salerno
Associate Professor of Psychology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Jessica Salerno is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a founding member of the Law and Behavioral Science group. She studies the social psychology of legal decision making. Research website.
Mehera San Roque
Associate Professor of Law & Justice
School of Law, Society, & Criminology
University of New South Wales (PLuS Alliance Partner)
Mehera San Roque's research interests include evidence law, feminist analysis of law, law and surveillance/visual cultures, and the newly emerging field of law and sound. She has a particular interest in cross-disciplinary collaborations, including an Australian Research Council-funded multidisciplinary and international project examining the participation of deaf citizens as jurors, working with linguists, NSW Legal Aid, interpreters and colleagues from Interpreting and Translation Studies. With colleagues in law, forensic science, psychology and medicine, she is involved in research on identification evidence and surveillance technologies aimed at improving the reliability and evaluation of evidence in criminal trials. She is a member of the Evidence-Based Forensics Initiative at UNSW and on the Council of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. Research Website.
Lindsay Smith
Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Lindsay Smith works at the intersection of human rights, medical anthropology, and forensic science to understand the role of new technological innovations in post-conflict settings. She has worked with families, scientists, and activist groups in Central America to document how citizens and scientists have drawn on DNA as a tool for justice after genocide and to document the violence and disappearance that migrants suffer in Mexico and the US-borderlands. At the core of her writing, research, and teaching lies the question of how and when new technologies can be used to address human suffering caused by violence and dispossession. She received a 2020 NSF CAREER Award to explore innovative and ethical uses of technology in the borderlands. Research website.
Lauren Weidner
Assistant Professor of Entomology
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Lauren Weidner is a board certified forensic entomologist whose research focuses on the biodiversity of forensically important insects and how the environment influences their arrival and colonization of remains. Additionally, her work investigates larval morphology of forensically relevant blow flies. Dr. Weidner is also the Program Lead for the Forensic Science B.S. degree program at ASU. Research website.
Shirly Montero
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Shirly Montero is an Assistant Professor at the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences of Arizona State University. Driven to protect the integrity of evidence and reduce miscarriages of justice, her lab studies factors that affect the value of non-biological trace evidence, its sampling, analysis, interpretation, and communication. Her lab is highly interdisciplinary and uses tools from analytical chemistry, data science, and cognitive science.
Katelyn Bolhofner
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Katelyn Bolhofner is an Assistant Professor of Forensic Anthropology and PI of the Forensic Anthropology Laboratory in the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and an Affiliated Faculty member of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Her research in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology links skeletal biology to issues of social identity, health, and human interactions in historical and archaeological contexts, as well as in contemporary society. The Forensic Anthropology Laboratory is currently engaged in an extended research study examining the skeletal manifestations of abuse and neglect in the elderly, as well as in a multi-stage experimental analysis of decomposition in the Sonoran Desert.
Jacob Harris
Assistant Professor of Statistics
School of Interdisciplinary Forensics
Mickey Mancenido
Assistant Professor of Statistics
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Michelle (Mickey) Mancenido’s research focuses on the design and analysis of statistical experiments in engineering, scientific, and industrial applications. Mancenido's expertise is in optimal experimental designs, statistical modeling for chemical and mixture experiments, and sensory experiments. She’s an advocate of well-designed experiments as the key to robust scientific conclusions, user-centric product design and efficient industrial processes. Research website.
Laura Smalarz
Assistant Professor of Psychology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Laura Smalarz's research program aims to facilitate accurate legal outcomes in criminal cases by developing and testing evidence-based practices for collecting, preserving, and presenting criminal evidence. Her research has identified various sources of bias, and remedies for those biases, in eyewitness-identification evidence, confession evidence, and forensic evidence. Research website.
Karey L. O'Hara
Assistant Professor of Psychology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Karey L. O’Hara conducts research on risk and protective factors that influence how youth and families adjust after stressful events that involve contact with family, juvenile, or criminal court systems, such parental divorce and parental incarceration. Currently, her research focuses on designing, optimizing, and evaluating interventions to promote the health and well-being of youth who experience these challenging stressors. Her work is currently funded by a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH120321). Research website.
Jason Frizzell
Assistant Teaching Professor of Psychology
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Jason Frizzell is a licensed psychologist focused on bridging gaps between empirical forensic psychology research and applied forensic psychology practice, as well as developing improved competencies and certifications for forensic experts and trainees. His work also involves interdisciplinary collaborations with community stakeholders to improve policy and practice in forensic psychology.
Adriana Sartorio
Assistant Teaching Professor, Forensic Science
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Adriana Sartorio is an experienced higher education professor in Forensic Science. Background in Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology as well as Forensic Science. Skilled in Molecular Biology, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Life Sciences, and education of majors and non-major students in forensic science.
Heather Pomeranz
Assistant Teaching Professor, Forensic Science
School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences
Heather Pomeranz is an experienced educator and an experienced forensic scientist. Before joining ASU, she had previously worked as a crime analyst with the San Diego Police Department, where she was assigned to the Sex Crimes Unit, Child Abuse Unit, and Sex Offender Unit. At ASU, she teaches FOR 105 (Physical Evidence and the Crime Scene) and FOR 106 (Biology Behind the Crime Scene).