Strengthening Forensic Science Through Connections with the Analytical Sciences

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This workshop, sponsored by the Chemistry Division, will address questions related to basic science and education posed in a 2009 National Research Council report entitled "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States." Specifically, the workshop will focus on aspects relating to the design, methodology, instrumentation, data processing, and data interpretation, for chemical measurements, and to the educational and research infrastructure that prepares people to be effective in this endeavor. A fundamental question that will be raised is whether analytical measurements, especially chemical measurements as applied to societally mandated measurement tasks including forensic science, have failed to keep up with demand. Questions to be addressed include whether (i) current analytical chemistry methods are intrinsically too slow; (ii) developed and promulgated methods are inappropriately rigid; (iii) the data being recorded is wasted by going un-interpreted; (iv) rugged and automated methodologies can replace current methods without sacrificing analytical performance; and (v) appropriate data handling and advanced computational methods can minimize data acquisition time and decrease analysis costs. These important general issues are basic to the fabric of modern technology and sometimes underpinning continued scientific progress. These questions will be examined at this workshop with particular attention to examples taken from trace chemical analysis as represented in forensic science. The workshop will also seek to help catalyze the emerging analytical science of in-situ, high density measurements, especially those which provide rapid, direct measurement on complex samples. In addressing both the practice of, and education in, forensic science, the proposed workshop will be both timely and sufficiently focused to have impact in those areas of forensic science most closely allied to analytical chemistry - instrumental analysis and chemometrics. It is anticipated that a strengthened relationship between forensic and analytical science should be mutually rewarding - closer ties between forensic practice and academic research will strengthen both fields. The enthusiasm of students for forensic science can provide a vehicle to increasing enthusiasm for and interest in science as a whole. The workshop will seek to develop specific suggestions for programs that align education in forensics with modern rapid analytical chemistry. Methods for measuring outcomes will be elicited from workshop attendees and included in the formal workshop report, its most significant product.