Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 28, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Max Houck

"Crime Scene Investigation"

ABSTRACT -- The popularity of documentary-style shows and crime dramas on television, reaching a pinnacle with the CSI franchise, has affected the public's perception of law, science, and justice. Through CSI and its siblings, the public has developed a fascination with and respect for science as an exciting and important profession unseen since the space program of the 1960's. Enrollment in forensic science educational programs across the U.S. is exploding. Less than 2 percent of the characters on prime time entertainment shows were scientists in each year during the mid-1990s; the appearance of women and minorities as scientists was even rarer. Women are now the majority in forensic science educational programs in the U.S. and in much of the profession.

SPEAKER -- Max M. Houck is the Director of the Forensic Science Initiative, a program that develops research and professional training for forensic scientists and related professionals. Houck is a trace evidence expert and forensic anthropologist who was assigned to the Trace Evidence Unit at the FBI Laboratory from 1992 to 2001. While at the FBI, Houck worked over 800 cases, including several major cases. Just before he joined WVU, he was assigned to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to assist with the examination and identification of the victims of the 9/11/01 Pentagon attack victims. Houck is also Director of Forensic Business Development at WVU College of Business and Economics.

Prior to his career at the FBI, Houck was the forensic anthropologist and a trace evidence examiner at the Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth, Texas. While at that office, he coordinated the anthropological recovery and scientific examinations of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. Houck is a graduate of Michigan State University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, among other professional organizations.

He has co-authored and edited two books of forensic case reviews, Mute Witnesses and Trace Evidence Analysis: More Cases from Mute Witnesses. Currently, he is working on several other books as well as an upper-level introductory forensic science textbook, Fundamentals of Forensic Science, with Dr. Jay Siegel. Houck is the Chairman of the Forensic Science Educational Program Accreditation Commission and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Forensic Sciences and the Journal of Forensic Identification.