KINGSTON R.I. — February 15, 2011 — The University of Rhode Island has announced the first half of it forensic science lecture series for the spring semester. All lectures will be held in Pastore Hall, room 124, 51 Lower College Road, and are free and open to the public. All lectures will run from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

The schedule is:

Feb. 18, Lou Wainwright of the Accelerated Solvent Extraction team will lecture on explosive detection.

Feb. 25, Shannon Fox of the Department of Homeland Security will discuss preventing bomb formation.

March 4, Herbert MacDonell, of the Laboratory of Forensic Science lecture on blood spatter. In 1956 MacDonell graduated from the University of Rhode Island with his master’s degree. Inventor of the MAGNA Brush Fingerprint device in 1960, he was involved in the investigations of the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. He wrote Flight Characteristics and Stain Patterns of Human Blood in 1971, and The Evidence Never Lies: The Case of a Modern Sherlock Holmes in 1984.

March 11, Tammy Barette, associate professor and coordinator of the Keystone College Forensic Biology Program, will lecture about forensic anthropology. She received her physical anthropology doctorate from Ohio State University in December 2001. Barette is a lawyer in the areas of criminal law, international law, and human rights.

March 18, Suzanne Bell of West Virginia University will discuss the modern methods of trace analysis. She has a master’s degree in forensic science from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a fellow of the American Board of Criminalistics in the area of forensic drug analysis.