URI announces lineup for spring forensic series

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 29, 2016 – Explosives, forensic DNA and trace evidence will be among the topics of the University of Rhode Island’s spring Forensic Science Seminar Series.


The seminars will be held on the Kingston campus on Fridays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Pastore Hall, 51 Lower College Road, Room 124. All lectures are free and open to the public.


The speakers and their topics are as follows:


Feb. 5, Jim Clift, Providence Police detective, “Crime Scene Processing.”


Feb. 12, Kirk Yeager, FBI bomb expert, “Explosives”


Feb. 19, R. Chris O’Brien, professor at the University of New Haven, College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, “Wildlife Forensics”


Feb. 26, Jeffrey Luber, Suffolk County forensic document examiner, “Questioned Documents”


March 4, Victor Faye-Wolfe, professor at URI in the Department of Computer Science and Statistics, “Digital Forensics”


March 11, Frank Gallo, professor at Western New England University, “Police Use of Force”


March 25, Robin Fortunati, chief of the Rhode Island Department of Health Forensic Laboratories, “Forensic DNA”


April 1, Neil Clapperton, forensic scientist and The University of Rhode Island, “Firearms & Tool Marks”


April 8, Virginia Maxwell, professor in the Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Department at the University of New Haven, “Glass and Soil”


April 15, Laurie Ogilvie, Rhode Island Department of Health Forensic Laboratory, ‘Forensic Toxicology”


April 22, Dr. Daniel Greenfield, psychiatrist and professor of neuroscience at Seton Hall University, “Psychiatry”


April 29, Kim Freeland, expert in trace evidence at the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory, “Arson”


Dominick LaFerrera, an intern in the department of marketing and communications and a communication studies major, wrote this release.