Internationally renowned expert in forensic science to speak at Syracuse University

Internationally renowned expert in forensic science to speak at Syracuse University March 11, 2009Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

An icon in the field of forensic science, Herbert Leon MacDonell, will present “Sixty Years of Forensic Investigations” Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. in Syracuse University’s Life Science Complex Auditorium (Room 001). The lecture is presented by the Forensic Science Program in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and is free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in the Booth Garage on Comstock Avenue.

MacDonell is director of the Laboratory of Forensic Science in Corning, N.Y. He has testified as an expert witness in 33 states and in countries across the globe, including in such celebrated cases as the Joan Little murder trial in Raleigh, N.C.; the O.J. Simpson double murder trial in Los Angeles; the assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles; and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.

Holder of four patents, MacDonell invented the MAGNA Brush, a device for processing latent fingerprints. It is the only powder method that is successful for developing fingerprints deposited on human skin. In 1973, MacDonell founded the Bloodstain Evidence Institute; he has conducted seminars and workshops on human bloodstain evidence across the United States and abroad. He is also founder of the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, which currently has more than 800 members from 17 countries. He has written four books on bloodstain pattern interpretation and more than 100 forensic and scientific articles, some of which are chapters in classic forensic textbooks.

MacDonell holds a B.A. from Alfred University and an M.S. and Sc.D. from the University of Rhode Island. He was professor and head of the chemistry department at Milton College in Wisconsin and professor of criminalistics at both Corning Community College and Elmira College.

SU’s College of Arts and Sciences offers undergraduate students a minor in forensic science and graduate students a master’s program in forensic science. The M.S. degree program is an interdisciplinary course of study that provides students with an in-depth understanding of the fundamental concepts and principles involved in the application of scientific techniques to forensic investigations and to the criminal justice system. Further information about the programs is available on the Web at http://forensics.syr.edu.