Kara & Megan: Forensic Science

Walking Through Time

SCIENTISTS

Mathieu Orfila

Mathieu Orfila is often called The Father of Forensic Toxicology. In 1814 he published a treatise on the detection of poisons & their effects on animals. He studied forensic medicine and the decomposition of bodies. Now as a professor of medical chemistry, he became the dean of the Faculty of medicine and recognized the medical schools. Lastly, he was elected president of the Academy of Medicine.

Francis Galton

Francis Galton was a British scientist. He published the book "Fingerprints". This book contained the very first proof of unique fingerprints. One of the other things he is best known for is his study of humans. Galton was the first to introduce surveys and questionnaires in order to collect data on humans. He devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science.

Alexandre Lacassagne

Specialist in the field of toxicology, and was a pioneer regarding bloodstain pattern analysis and research of bullet markings and their relationship to specific weapons.

Hans Gross

Hans Gross was a lawyer and judge in Austria. He is best known for his published books that are called the "birth field of criminalistics" . These works combined science with crime. His best known work is a journal called "Kriminologie" which was published in 1893. Gross founded the museum of criminalistics in Gratz which is another one of his achievements. Gross taught at Chernivtsi University and taught the criminal process and criminal law.

Sir Edward Richard Henry

Becomes head of Scotland yard and adopts a fingerprint identification system in place of Anthropology.

Alfonso Bertillon

Alfonso Bertillon was a French scientist. In 1879, he came up with the first system of person ID using body measurements. This system was called Anthropometry. Eventually, fingerprints took over as the main source of identification but his "mug shot method" is still used today. One interesting fact about Bertillon is that he was mentioned the Sherlock Holmes story, " The Hound of the Baskervilles."

Albert Osborn

Albert Osborn is know as the Father of questioned document examination. He was an American scientist in 1910, he published the book "Questioned Documents". This book quickly became the primary reference for document examiners. He founded the American society that houses the best document examiners in 1942 and was the first president of it. Because of all his research, documents were officially accepted as scientific evidence for crimes.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish physician who is best known for his writing of the detective Sherlock Holmes books. He's also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, professor challenger.

Karl Landsteiner

An Austrian biologist who imigrated to the United States, Karl Landsteiner discovered in 1901 that blood could be grouped and categorized. Originally he categorized blood into 3 different categories, A, B, and C. He learned that if the same blood type is transferred, no blood cells are lost unlike if you transfer a different blood type. Landsteiner also discovered polio virus. He discovered this while working at a Hygienic Institute where he studied immunity. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1930.

August Vollmer

August Vollmer established the first forensic labratory in California. He was a chief figure in developing the United States criminal justice system. He was the first elected police chief in the US in the year 1909.

Edmond Locard

After Edmond Locard spent some time in Lyons, France with Alphonse Bertillon and studied criminal identification he decided to open a laboratory in Lyons, the first Forensic Lab in the world. In Lyons he was also the founder and director of the Institute of criminalistics at the University of Lyons. But what he is most known for is his exchange principle. He stated that, "any action of an individual, and obviously the violent action constituting a crime, cannot occur without leaving a trace."

Leone Lattes

Leone Lattes, an Italian, devised a procedure in 1915 which dried bloodstains to be grouped for forensic purposes. He used 2 different cases to prove that this method worked and helped solve the case because the blood at the scene did not match that of the person. The first book he published with his findings dealt with blood in clinical issues, heritability, paternity, and his most famous work in forensics, dried blood stains.

Calvin Goddard

Calvin Goddard developed the comparison microscope and discoveries in forensic ballistics. The comparison microscope was originally invented to identify bullets and cases. Goddard established the Bureau of Forensics Ballistics in New York City which helped to identify firearms in America. He was an adviser when the FBI was invented to help establish a lab there.

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from the years 1924-1972. The FBI was first established by Teddy Roosevelt as the bureau of investigation. After he died, evidence was found that Hoover used the FBI to harass political leaders and activists.

Paul Kirk

Paul Kirk, a United States scientist, was a professor of biochemistry at UC Berkeley in California and then became head of the crime department in 1950. He supported Locard's exchange principle. Kirk published a book, "Crime Investigation" which was a handbook for forensic lab techniques. He is also well known for his case work with bloodstain pattern analysis.

Lawrence Kersta

Lawrence Kersta invented the Voiceprint Identification is a Spectrographic method by which people can be identified by their voices. This method may help who use the telephone to make bomb threats.

R.F. Borkenstein

R.F. Borkenstein revolutinized enforcement of drunk driving laws by inventing the breathalyzer to measure alcohol in the blood.The Breathalyzer is a portable device that can determine whether the person being tested is legally drunk. It measures the proportion of alcohol vapors in exhaled air, a proportion that reflects the content of alcohol in the blood.

Dr. William Bass

Dr. William Bass is best known for his research on human Osteology and human decomposition. He also described the body form and functions.

Herbert L. Macdonnell

Herbert L. Macdonnell is best known in the forensic science community as the founder of the Bloodstain evidence institute, which has been training, law enforcement investigators and forensic scientist since 1973.

Sara Bisel was a physical anthropologist and archaeologist who pioneered ork in the chemical and physical analysis of skeletons. Her work, especially in Herculaneum, a town destroyed by to 79 CE mount Vesuvius eruption, helped advance the field of forensic archeology.

Michael Baden

Willam Maples

Willam Maples was a re-owned forensic anthropologist at the university of Florida. He is known for his work in human identification and trauma analysis for his book, Dead Men Do Tale Tales. Throughout his career, he assisted in the identification of human remains of spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, Czar Nicholas the 2nd, and Joseph Merrick,"The Elephant Man."

Henry Chang-YuLee

One of the Worlds foremost and forensic scientist and founder of the Henry C. Lee Institute of forensic science.

Alec Jeffreys

Alec Jeffreys is a well-known geneticist, a professor at the University of Leicester in Britain. He had a epiphany about using DNA to identify people while studying x-ray images of a DNA experiment he was running in his lab, his techniques are used all over the world to catch criminals.

THE END

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Michael Baden is a medical doctor and a board certified forensic pathologist known as a host of HBO's Autopsy. He is also known for his work as an investigator into high-profile death cases including John Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Sid Vicious, John Balush and more.

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Walter McCrone

"OJ Simpson ." Wikipedia. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson_murder_case>.

By: Kara Kanipe

& Megan Cunningham

From 1944 to 1956 he was a microscopist and materials Scientist at what is known the Illinois Institute of Technology.

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Sara Bisel