Department of Forensic Sciences
Newsletter – Summer 2008
EXTRA! EXTRA!
On August 15, The George Washington University was host to a news conference announcing the successful identification of a victim of a 1948 airplane crash on the slopes
of Alaska’s Mt. Sanford. Fingerprint identification and DNA profiling were used to conclusively identify a left arm recovered in 1999 as belonging to Frank Van Zandt, an
American merchant mariner who was returning to the United States from the Far East.
Prof. Ted Robinson and Dr. Odile Loreille of AFDIL played important roles in the identification (see page 7 for more details). The news conference required a teleconference
hook-up with the Alaska Department of Public Health so that Dr. Stan Kessler, the acting
medical examiner, and reporters for Alaska news organizations could participate. The
news conference generated a report on the local Fox station and an article in the Washington Post.
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LOOKING FOR STUDENTS
Across the country rising seniors are beginning to think about graduate degree programs. If you know of someone who is considering a career in forensic science, you
should put in a good word for your alma mater. The George Washington University has
the oldest forensic science degree program in the United States and has graduated more
forensic scientists than all the other forensic science degree programs combined. The
Washington area also has the largest concentration of forensic science laboratories in the
country, so that there are unparalleled internship and research opportunities. The Department offers the Master of Forensic Science degree with concentrations in the following areas:
Forensic molecular biology
Forensic chemistry
Forensic toxicology
Crime scene investigation
High technology crime investigation
Security management
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MAKE A DONATION
Like every other educational institution in the country, The George Washington University has more demands for resources than it has revenues to meet them. The Department of Forensic Sciences appreciates donations from its graduates. See page 5 for a list
of recent donors and for details about how you can make a donation.
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Summer 2008
Ted also disposed of the Department’s
redundant digital and film cameras to
students in his crime scene and photography courses.
The Chair’s Column
MOUs
The Department has entered into two
significant memoranda of understanding
(MOUs). The first is the MOU with the
International Association for Identification (IAI). This MOU allows the Department to administer to the crime scene
investigation students the IAI certification examination for crime scene investigators. If a graduating student successThis is my first column as the new chair of fully passes this examination he or she
the Department of Forensic Sciences. I hope only requires a year of on-the-job experithat this newsletter will keep our current stu- ence to become a certified crime scene
dents and our graduates abreast of all the new investigator. This will be a great benefit
developments in the Department and its profor our CSI students when they are job
grams. I want to begin by acknowledging the hunting.
service of Prof. Moses Schanfield, who
The Department has also entered into
served six years as department chair. Prof.
an MOU with the Drug Enforcement
Schanfield will be on sabbatical during the
Administration. Under this MOU the
fall.
DEA will accept our students as interns
in their laboratories. Students who comNew Equipment
plete their internships successfully will
have priority in hiring to fill positions in
The Department has been lucky to receive a the DEA laboratories. Prior to being acPerkin-Elmer FTIR spectrometer with an incepted into internships the students must
frared microscope accessory. This instrument pass DEA background investigations.
will greatly enhance the laboratories in the
forensic chemistry and trace evidence
WiFi in Samson Hall
courses. We got this FTIR spectrometer
through the good offices of Gerry LaPorte at
The University has completed the inthe United States Secret Service Laboratory.
stallation of optical fibers and four
The FTIR has been delivered to our laborarouters on the first floor of Samson Hall.
tory and is now being set up.
There is now complete wireless coverage
Ted Robinson has been able to get Nikon to throughout the Department’s laboratories
loan us twenty-five complete digital camera
and offices. Students will be able to ackits for use in the crime scene investigation
cess the Internet from their laptop comand forensic photography courses. Right now puters. The Department will also be able
the plan is that each year the cameras will be to link the desktop computers in the laboreplaced with new ones; the used cameras
ratories to the Internet.
will then be sold at a discount, with faculty
and students having first priority.
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Summer 2008
Faculty Pages
ethic origin and somatic traits of an individual from DNA. This is one of the
greatest challenges yet to be effectively
Prof. Lappas spoke at a ACS sponsored
overcome in the field of forensic molecusymposium, “Introduction to Toxicology,
lar biology and is of great interest to the
Chemical Toxicology in Action”, for high
forensic science community.
school and college students and faculty in
Two interesting projects, conducted by
Washington, DC, on April 12, 2008. He also
st
Dr Podini’s students have recently been
spoke at the 61 annual meeting of the Retired Chemists Society of Washington, Wash- submitted to the AAFS 2009 meeting:
one examines the molecular genetic basis
ington, D.C., on June 18, 2008.
Prof. Lappas is completing a research profor microvariant alleles at the D21S11
ject with Jerry Robinson, Director of Relocus; the other centers on the developsearch at the Office of Forensic Research,
ment of a rapid (20-30 minutes) Real
Forensic Toxicology and Drug Testing Labo- Time PCR assay that enables simultaneratory, Pretrial Services Agency, Washington, ous quantitation of nuclear autosomal
D.C. and graduate student Lora Wharton con- DNA, detection of the presence of Y
cerning the prevalence of amphetamine abuse chromosomes for gender determination,
among DC arrestees.
quantitation of mitochondrial DNA, and
determination of the presence of inhibitors in a sample.
Prof. Daniele Podini
Prof. Nicholas Lappas
In the past year Prof. Podini has been working on several projects, one of
which is funded by The George Washington
University through the University Faculty
Funding program and one funded by the Forensic Science Foundation. He has also important scientific collaborations with the Research Section of the Armed Forces DNA
Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) and with
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which also give students
valuable research and internship opportunities.
Prof. Podini’s research focuses on developing molecular biology assays that
maximize the information that can be obtained by a sample, while minimizing its
consumption. More specifically, this year, he
has focused on the development of a methodology to simultaneously type a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs) across the nuclear and mitochondrial
genomes to study the possibility of predicting
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Prof. Edward Robinson
Prof. Robinson is presenting at the IAI
meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, on August 20th. This will be the first full presentation on the identification of the arm
recovered from the Alaskan glacier 51
years after a DC-4 crashed into Mt Sanford there. Prof. Robinson headed up the
fingerprint team which identified the arm
by fingerprints. Scientists from AFDIL
will be speaking about their efforts (successful) to identify the arm by DNA.
Fortunately, the DNA and the fingerprints both identified the same guy!!!
There are some pictures of the arm and
the fingers on page 6.
Prof. Robinson is currently working on
the second edition of his book Crime
Scene Photography. Effective August 1,
2008, it is the one photography book on
the IAI Crime Scene Certification Board
required reading list for all three levels of
Summer 2008
certification.
Ted is also researching the capabilities of
the Nikon D3 camera which offers an ISO
equivalent to 25,600! His research will test
the limits of this camera's ability to capture
details in dim light and still be able to produce an image of a subject that can be recognized.
Last Fall Prof. Robinson was elected to
the position of third vice president of the
Chesapeake Bay Division of the International Association of Identification and he
expects to move up to second vice president this fall.
acquisition of a Perkin-Elmer FTIR system.
He has also presented talks on firearms examinations to students at Battlefield High
School in Haymarket, Virginia, and to students in the CTY Program run by Johns
Hopkins at St. Stephen and St. Agnes
School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Prof. Moses Schanfield
Professor Schanfield is stepping down as
chair of the department of forensic sciences
after six years and taking a six month sabbatical. During his sabbatical he will be
writing articles on his research area of
population genetics looking at the distribuProf. Walter Rowe
tion of genetic markers in Pacific Island
Prof. Rowe assumed the chair of the De- populations, as well as the differentiation
partment of Forensic Sciences on July 1.
of populations in Siberia and Southeast
During the summer he has been teaching a Asia.
His future plans include setting up renew undergraduate course ForS 190: Forensic Science and National Security. He
search on DNA based typing of traditional
developed this course to support National
serological markers for forensic and anSecurity Intern program. This course is a
thropological research, setting up a new
course in human genetic variation and desurvey of basic forensic science with an
emphasis of the role that forensic science
veloping a joint program in anthropological
genetics with the department of anthropolplays in national security and intelligence.
Prof. Rowe is finally writing up the reogy.
sults of his analyses of bullets and exProf. Schanfield will again be program
pended cartridges recovered from the scene chair of the International Society of Apof the Fetterman Massacre, which took
plied Biological Sciences meeting in Split,
place in northern Wyoming in 1866.
Croatia, June 1-5, 2009. The title of the
Prof. Rowe is also writing up the research 6th conference will be “Human Genome
he has done (with many graduate students) Project Based Applications in Forensic
on the forensic analysis of writings made
Science, Anthropology and Individualized
with different types of writing instruments: Medicine.” The Department had three prespermanent markers, gel pens and dry erase entations at the 5th meeting, two of them
markers.
by graduate students -- Melinda Hung, who
Prof. Rowe has also completed a revision could not attend, and Tahnee Nelson, who
of his firearms and tool marks chapter in
is currently at the San Francisco PD laborathe popular forensic science textbook Fotory and gave the presentation on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) single nucleotide
rensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques, edited
polymorphism (SNP) assays. Prof. Schanby Stuart James and Jon Nordby.
field joined Prof. Podini and Tahnee and
Prof, Rowe has been the point man for the Melinda a patent application for a PCR kit.
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Summer 2008
the money is earmarked for our use. Otherwise, the money goes into the University’s general fund. Many thanks to the
following:
Prof. Eva Vincze
Prof. Vincze is the Program Director for
the Security Management and High Technology Crime Investigations Programs.
She also teaches in the program.
Prof. Vincze is presently researching
ways of using technology to enhance learning in the Forensic Sciences. In particular
she is looking at ways to develop and incorporate simulations, 3D animation, gaming and the use of virtual crime scenes into
the curriculum using a variety of multimedia devices. She is evaluating their effectiveness for adult learning over more
traditional methods of instruction.
Candice L. Cook
Beth Carlson Kimmerling (two donations)
John Joseph Tobin, Jr.
Palmer Gleason Tunstall
Megan L. Bishop
Frank Joseph Massaro
Tahnee Marie Nelson
Carla Daun Paintner
Daniele Podini
Kassondra A. Stockman
Wesley Rory Thomas
Colleen A. Dunn
Alumni/Alumnae News
THANKS!
Moved? Hired? Fired? Retired?
Worked on a cool case? Published some
awesome research? Discovered who really
shot JFK? Figured out what’s really going
on in Area 51? Prosecuted? Named unindicted co-conspirator? Inquiring minds (at
least those of your professors and fellow
graduates) want to know. Well, okay, we
don’t want to hear about the last two. But
we do want to know how your life has been
going since you left us. So tell us. Send
short blurbs about your life so far to
Prof. Podini would also like to thank all
those who contributed money at the Department of Forensic Sciences reception at
the American Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting in February. The funds
raised enabled him to purchase a Savant
OligoPrep OP120 Speedvac for concentrating DNA samples.
Walter F. Rowe [email protected]
He’ll put them right here in future issues of
this newsletter.
Forensic Science Gifts
May 2007 to July 2008
We deeply appreciate the gifts of our
alumni/alumnae to the Department. Each
gift allows us to advance our research and
educational goals. If your check is made
out to the Department of Forensic Sciences,
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Summer 2008
Recent Meetings
Stephanie Moore receives $1000 MAAFS scholarship
The department was well represented at the annual meeting of the American Academy
of Forensic Sciences. Many alumni/alumnae as well as students attended the meeting
which was held here Washington, DC. Many alumni/alumnae presented papers at this
meeting. We were happy to see so many familiar faces at the departmental reception.
We are looking forward to seeing you all in Denver in ’09.
Rachel Dubin presented a paper before the document section entitled “Analysis of
Writings Made with Black Gel Pens.” Rachel used a variety of analytical techniques to
characterize black gel inks: thin-layer chromatography, scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) and visible-near infrared spectrophotometry. Christie Mitchell was able to fly
back from Washington state (where she is currently employed as a forensic toxicologist)
to give a paper entitled “Analysis of Dry Erase Markers” before the same session of the
document section. Christie used solubility tests, visible-near infrared reflectance spectrophotometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to characterize writing made
with dry erase markers. Prof. Rowe, her co-author, presented this paper at the annual
meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Forensic Scientists (MAAFS), which was
held in Huntington, West Virginia.
The biggest news from the MAAFS meeting was Stephanie Moore winning a $1000
MAAFS scholarship. She presented a paper entitled “Analysis of Blue Gel Pens” This
paper was based on her dissertation research, which she did under the direction of Prof.
Walter Rowe. As a result of her presentation she was asked to present a seminar at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg. She was also
hired at NIST on a two-year contract. Stephanie will be working with Dr. Bill MacCrehan.
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Summer 2008
Cool Forensic Stuff
Dead Men’s Fingers
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them….
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Left: Arm in situ on glacier
Right: Fingers before (above) and after (below)
rejuvenation.
In 1948, a DC-4 carrying 24 Merchant Marines and 6 crew members crashed into Mt Sanford in
Alaska. The debris fell onto a glacier at the foot of the mountain, and was swallowed up. Because of
rumors of treasure aboard the plane, this crash became very famous in Alaska, and treasure hunters
began looking for the crash site. In 1996, the crash site was located, and annual trips to the site were
made by the two pilots who found it. In 1999, a left forearm (above left) was found at the crash site
by airline pilots Kevin MacGregor and Marc Millican. Initial attempts by the Alaska Medical Examiner to identify the arm by fingerprints were unsuccessful. In 2007, AFIP agreed to attempt an identification of the arm by comparing DNA from the arm to current family members of the victims
aboard the plane. To double the chances for an identification, AFIP recruited Prof. Robinson to attempt rejuvenation of the tissues of the fingers for a fingerprint ID. Though the epidermis of the fingers was missing, a fingerprint identification was made! The fingerprints from the fingers matched
those on file for Frank Van Zandt, an American merchant mariner whose legal residence at the time
of his death was Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Odile Loreille at AFDIL also identified the arm by
DNA. She used a DNA reference sample from a distant relative of Van Zandt. Among fingerprint
examiners, this case is currently regarded as the identification of the oldest desiccated/embalmed tissue on record.
In November 2007 Profs. Podini and Schanfield, along with former graduate students Tahnee Nelson and Melinda Hung, made a provisional application for a patent for a DNA amplification kit that
detects a large array of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on mitochondrial DNA. The kit
provides information about the population ancestry of the source of the mitochondrial DNA.
Done some cool crime scene work or some cool forensic work? Let Prof. Rowe ([email protected])
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Summer 2008
know and he will put it here.
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Summer 2008
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Summer 2008