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Faculty
This Master of Science program brings together several key faculty from the University of California who have made substantial contributions to the field of forensic science and forensic medicine through their own disciplines in the sciences, medicine, engineering, law and psychology. Additional faculty are drawn from the California Criminalistics Institute, forensic consulting firms and public crime labs.
Ralph C. Aldredge, III, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at UC Davis and a licensed professional engineer. He performs research investigations and consulting in areas relating to energy conversion, biotransport, failure analysis and accident reconstruction. He received Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 1988 and 1990, respectively.
Christyann Darwent, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Anthropology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. She has had an interest in Forensic Anthropology since she was an undergraduate at the University of Calgary, Canada, where she focused on human skeletal remains. Although she ended up shifting her studies to archaeology and the analysis of animal bone remains, she continues to have a keen interest in forensic anthropology. She was the "forensic archeologist" on a forensic excavation in a turkey barn in southern Missouri, the alleged location of a missing bar waitress. She has also served on a MS in forensic science thesis committee on ancient DNA from a late prehistoric archaeological site in South Dakota. Her current work is in the High Arctic of Greenland and Alaska and she currently has two NSF sponsored projects in these locations. Her own research focuses on animal bones and taphonomic analysis of those remains. In other words what happens during the death, burial, and recovery sequence. She uses this taphonomic information as a means of assessing climatic changes, prehistoric and historic human hunting, and butchering of animals. She also oversees any human remains recovered in their archaeological excavations.
R. Michael Davis, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside in Plant Pathology. His major effort is in the area of fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases of field and vegetable crops, especially tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, cucurbits, cotton, and corn as well as mushroom production and diseases. He received the University of California Cooperative Extension Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Research in 2006.
Katayoon (Katie) Dehesh, Ph.D., is a full professor in the Plant Biology Department, College of Biological Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from Sussex University in Sussex, England. She pursued her postdoctoral research at the University of Freiburg, Germany; University of Kiel in Germany; University of Wisconsin, Madison; and University of California, Berkeley. Her postdoctoral research was focused on plant photomorphongenesis with emphasis on dissection of the transcriptional machinery of light regulated genes. Her current research program is focused on unraveling the plant stress signaling network with emphasis on controlling mechanisms regualting early (within 5 minutes) and late stress responses. Specifically she is studying oxylipin mediated stress signaling pathway to examine the role of lipid derived metabolites in plant responses to biotic and abiotic chanllenges. In addition she is examining the parallels between the oxylipin metabolic pathways in plant and animals. The approaches employed in this research program encompass a wide range of biochemical, molecular and molecular genetic techniques.
Holly Ernest, D.V.M., Ph.D., is an assistant professor and veterinarian specializing in wildlife biology, conservation and management including wildlife forensic genetics. She directs the Wildlife and Ecological Genetics Unit at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory (VGL) which conducts research on genetics of threatened and endangered species. Genetic work applicable to forensic science in Ernest’s laboratory includes development of DNA marker panels (microsatellites, sex and species ID markers, etc), databases, population genetics and statistical analysis techniques in collaboration with state and federal wildlife agencies. Ernest is a faculty member of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Population Health and Reproduction, as well as graduate groups in animal biology, avian science, ecology and genetics.
Walter E. Finkbeiner, M.D., Ph.D., received his M.D. from the University of Illinois (1978), and Ph.D. from UC San Francisco (1989). He completed training in anatomic pathology at UC San Francisco (1982) and forensic pathology at UC Davis (2001). He is currently professor and vice chair of the Department of Pathology, UC San Francisco, and chief of pathology at San Francisco General Hospital. His areas of research include airway cell biology, autopsy pathology and forensic pathology. Finkbeiner is co-author of Autopsy Pathology: A Manual and Atlas, Churchill Livingston: Philadelphia, 2004.
Paul Gepts, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences specializing in crop biodiversity and the evolutionary factors that have shaped this biodiversity during and after crop domestication. His reasearch program attracts graduate students primarily from the U.S. and Latin America, but also from Africa and Asia through the Ecology, Genetics, Horticulture & Agronomy and International Agricultural Development Graduate Groups. The experimental work in his lab that is most applicable to forensics involves the development and use of molecular markers to distinguish among closely related genotypes within plant species. For example, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences recently invalidated—based on his molecular and statistical data—a patent for a yellow bean on the grounds that it had actually been developed in Mexico and therefore did not represent a novelty. In the recent past, he was part of a thesis committee for a Forensic Science student M.S. thesis. He has always thought that forensic cases are intellectually challenging and stimulating. Gepts is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. He reads, speaks and writes fluently in four languages (French, Dutch, Spanish and English).
William Green, M.D., is currently a clinical professor of emergency medicine. He is one of the founders of the Sexual Assault Forensic Evaluation (SAFE) Team at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. His publications include Rape: The Evidential Examination and Management of the Adult Female Victim. In 1990, he was appointed by the California Commission on the Status of Women to OCJP’s State Advisory Committee that oversees services to sexual assault victims. Green is currently Director of Sexual Assault Education at the California Medical Training Center at UC Davis and has recently been named to the Governors Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault.
Gail Goodman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology at UC Davis. Her research specialties include memory development and children’s abilities and experiences as victims/witnesses (to provide testimony about events they have experienced or witnessed). She is also currently studying the effects of child abuse on emotional adjustment/ psychopathology and relations between child maltreatment, re-victimization and juvenile delinquency. Her studies have been cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Goodman has served as president of two divisions (Child, Youth and Family Services; and Psychology and Law) and one section (Child Maltreatment) of the American Psychological Association. In 2005 she received awards from the American Psychological Association for distinguished contributions to applied research and research in public policy.
David Howitt, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at UC Davis. He received his Ph.D. degree at UC Berkeley. His areas of research emphasis include forensics and failure analysis, electron microscopy, and the determination of structure property relationships in materials. He is chairman of the Steering Committee for the National Center for Electron Microscopy.
Edward Imwinkelried, Jr., J.D., is the Edward Basset Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis. He is the co-author of Scientific Evidence (3d ed. 1999) and the author of The Methods of Attacking Scientific Evidence (3d ed. 1997). He is the expert testimony columnist for National Law Journal and a contributing editor on forensic science for Criminal Law Bulletin. Barrett was a member of the Legal Issues Working Group of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence and served as the legal consultant to the Surgeon General’s Commission on Urinalysis Testing in the Armed Forces.
You-Lo Hsieh, Ph.D., is chair and a professor in the Department of Textiles and Clothing at UC Davis, specializing in fiber and polymer science. Her research focuses on fiber and polymer chemistry, with active projects related to fiber chemistry and structure (natural and synthesized), functional fibers (nanofibers, nanoporous), polymer synthesis (bio-based, amphilic, stimuli-responsive), surface/interfacial properties (protein binding, hydrogel, control-release) and biomass conversion.
Sree Kanthaswamy, Ph.D., is a population geneticist at the UC Davis California Primate Research Center. His projects include the UC Davis Primate Center rhesus macaque colony as well as other NIH-supported colonies in the U.S. and extant orangutan populations in Borneo. He also heads an NIH-funded grant on the development of a canine forensics panel for law enforcement agencies.
Robert B. Kimsey, Ph.D., is an associate adjunct professor of entomology investigating epidemiology of tick borne Zoonoses in northern California. He received his Ph.D. in entomology at UC Davis in 1984 and then conducted postdoctoral research in that department. In 1987 he joined the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Tropical Public Health as a research associate. Kimsey was a visiting lecturer in parasitology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University during this period. He teaches a graduate-level seminar in forensic entomology at UC Davis and continues to consult for law enforcement as well as law firms.
Donald P. Land, Ph.D., has been a professor in the Department of Chemistry at UC Davis since 1991. He served as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow (1990-1991). His specialty is analytical and physical chemistry studies of solids and surfaces with applications in biology, medicine, catalysis and the environment. Land uses microscopy, spectroscopy, lasers and mass spectrometry to analyze solids and surfaces to study trace evidence and to elucidate the relationship between structure and function in surface chemistry, often using custom-designed instrumentation. His forensic applications include the study of soot composition, elemental analysis of glass fragments and GC/MS studies of clandestine lab materials.
Leslie A. Lyons, Ph.D., is a geneticist and associate professor in the Department of Population Health and Reproduction in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. She received her M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree from The University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Department of Human Genetics. Both of her degrees are in human genetics, specializing in laboratory and data analysis of human disease gene mapping. The laboratory has the capacity for high-throughput DNA amplification, DNA sequencing, DNA polymorphism and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection. Current forensic projects include the development of markers and databases for mtDNA, microsatellites and phenotypic-associated SNPs for identification of feline crime scene evidence.
Marion Miller, Ph.D., is a professor in environmental toxicology at UC DAvis. She received her Ph.D. in Parmacology from the Medical University of South Carolina. Her research areas include the study of metabolic activation mechanisms of toxicity and the role of pharmaco/toxicokinetics in toxicity with an emphasis on the male reproductive system. She has studied sperm biomarkers that signal reproductive health and is particularly interested in what make the test is a specific target for toxicant action. Miller also uses a variety of chemical analytical techniques to analyze pesticides and their metabolites. Her areas of expertise are male reproductive toxicology, metabolism and pharmaco/toxicokinetics, as well as separation and quantitation techniques for metabolites and biomolecules.
Alyson Mitchell, Ph.D., is an associate professor and Fod Chemist in the Department of Food Science and Technology. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Davis. Her interests are Application of HPLC and LC/MS/MS in the identification and occurrence of phytochemicals and their metabolites in foods and biological matrices.
Terence M. Murphy, Ph.D., is a professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology. Murphy received his B.S. in biology at CalTech and his Ph.D. in cell biology at UC San Diego. He studies effects of abiotic stresses on the biochemistry and physiology of plant cells. His areas of interest have included membrane transport, formation and removal of reactive oxidizing agents, and DNA repair. He has applied his experience to the identification and comparison of plant samples through DNA sequence analysis.
Edward A. Panacek, M.D., M.P.H., is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UC Davis Medical Center and the associate editor of the Journal of Emergency Medicine. He received his MD degree from the University of South Alabama. He holds board certification in Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. His research interests, relevant to the forensic sciences are: Medical aspects of violence and injury. Specifically. Sexual Assault and Injury prevention. He is the Chair of a multidisciplinary research group at UCDMC, called SARG (Sexual assault research group). He is also a founding member of a nascent California based, multi-institutional SARG, that is just beginning.
Birgit Puschner, Ph.D., is a Professor of Clinical Veterinary Toxicology. She received her PhD. from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Germany. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology. Her interests are in the investigation, review and interpretation of all toxicology case submissions in light of clinical, clinicopathological and pathological findings. This includes the continuous improvement and development of diagnostic capabilities including method development. Specific Areas of Expertise are: Investigation of intoxication of animals, Development of new diagnostic tools to confirm intoxications and Assessment of potential food safety concerns, including bio/agro terrorism.
Bahram Ravani, Ph.D., is a professor of mechanical and aero engineering and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his M.S. from Columbia University in New York and his Ph.D. from Stanford University, both in mechanical engineering. His research areas include forensic biomechanics, forensic evaluation and analysis of injury accidents and accident reconstruction. He also specializes in kinematics and dynamics, mechanical design and robotics. Ravani uses the science base of kinematics, dynamics and biomechanical engineering in forensic evaluation of accidents and injuries which includes multidisciplinary investigation of traffic, industrial and other injury accidents. He has been involved in research, investigation and analysis of many accidents evaluating causation and accident reconstruction.
Robert H. Rice, Ph.D., chair of the Forensic Science Graduate Group at UC Davis and a professor and faculty adviser for the Department of Environmental Toxicology. His areas of emphasis include mechanisms of action of toxic and physiological agents affecting keratinocyte growth and differentiation; biochemistry and expression of specific keratinocyte markers; and metabolic activation of toxic agents in epidermal cells. He also serves as a member of the UC Davis Graduate Groups in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, and Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Moshe Rosenberg, D.Sc., is a professor and specialist in the Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis. He received his M.Sc. and D.Sc. degrees in food engineering and biotechnology from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. His research focuses on developing a new understanding about physio-chemical and microencapsulating properties of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, and on developing advanced, highly-functional delivery systems for nutrients and bio-active compounds. His research is also aimed at gaining a better understanding about physio-chemical principles that govern milk processibility, functionality of milk constituents and the development of quality attributes of cheese and other dairy products.
Thomas L. Rost, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of plant biology at UC Davis. Since 1972, his research and teaching has focused on aspects of the structure and development of plants. Over many years, Rost has consulted with local law enforcement agencies, the Office of the Federal Defender, the FBI and medical clinics on cases where plants or plant materials have been involved in crimes or medical cases.
Brandi Schmitt, M.S., is the director of Anatomical Services for the University of California Office of the President. Her role at UCOP includes management of the university system’s five whole-body donation programs, setting ethical guidelines for the acquisition, use and disposition of anatomical materials used for education and research, as well as ensuring compliance with university policies. Schmitt’s academic interests include institutional whole-body donation programs, multidisciplinary human identifications and mass fatality management and response, as well as the facilitation of clinical, surgical and forensic research and education. Schmitt is a member of the California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) located in the State of California Office of Emergency Services.
George Sensabaugh, D.Crim., is a professor in the Departments of Forensic Science and Biomedical Sciences at UC Berkeley. He received his doctorate degree from the School of Criminology at UC Berkeley and has taught and conducted research in forensic science for more than 30 years. His main forensic research interests are in the area of forensic biology, ranging from technology development to applications of DNA technology to non-human biological materials. He has a longstanding interest in developing the foundations of forensic science as a professional endeavor. Other research interests include biochemical genetics, molecular epidemiology and the molecular evolution of microbes.
Takayuki Shibamoto, Ph.D., is a professor in environmental toxicology at UC Davis. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry from UC Davis. His research areas include the study of antioxidative properties of components in natural plants including antioxidative activities of aroma chemicals; and the Maillard reaction or nonenzymatic browning reaction associated with formation of antioxidants, carcinogens and anticarcinogens in food. He has studied the analysis of volatile chemicals using expertise of capillary gas chromatography, including natural plant essences and wine chemistry. Shibamoto has also conducted research on analytical methods for certain pesticides, degradation of pesticides in food and environment, and seasonal variation of pesticide residues in surface water.
David G. Smith, Ph.D., is a professor of anthropology. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He pursued postdoctoral research in human genetic epidemiology at the Human Genetics Department of the University of Michigan Medical School and at the Institute for Cancer Research of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Current interests include the biogeography of genus Macaca, genetic evidence for circumstances pertaining to the peopling of the New World, and the use of both modern and ancient DNA to assess ancestordescendant relationships.
Terry Spear, M.A., received her graduate degree in criminalistics from California State University, Sacramento and is a former program manager for the California Criminalistics Institute of the California Department of Justice, responsible for the direction and focus of the state’s DNA training program. While she was at CCI, her classes received acclaim from many students. She is now an independent consultant for various crime laboratories in northern California and the POST Advanced Homicide school.
Faye Springer worked as a criminalist with the California Department of Justice in the Riverside and the Sacramento laboratories. In 1996, she accepted a position with the Sacramento County Forensic Laboratory where she is the technical leader of the trace evidence laboratory. Springer has worked more than 1,000 homicide cases including some of the most notable serial murderers in California. She was the subcommittee chairperson of the National Scientific Working Group on Materials (SWGMAT) developing national standards for analysis and training. She is best known for her work in the area of trace evidence and crime scene investigation.
Scott D. Stanley, Ph.D., is an associate professor of equine chemistry and director of the K.L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, UC Davis. Under his leadership, the laboratory has established itself as one of the largest and most respected LC-MS equine drug-testing labs in the world. Stanley is a recognized leader in the field of mass spectrometry (MS) and LC-MS. His primary research interest includes trace analytical determinations of drugs, metabolites and natural products in the biological samples. He has published more than 50 peerreviewed articles in scientific journals. Stanley received his Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of Kentucky.
Ronald S. Tjeerdema, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., is professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology. He received a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from UC Davis in 1987, and then served on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz before returning to UC Davis in 1999. His research is focused on characterizing toxic actions via in vivo NMR and NMR-based metabolomics and the fate of pesticides and petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment.
John I. Thornton, D.Crim., is an emeritus professor of forensic science at the University of California, Berkeley and a board-certified criminalist. He was a student of Paul Kirk. After his undergraduate work and a turn in the Air Force, he worked in the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department crime lab for nine years as a criminalist, several years as the supervising criminalist and one year as laboratory director. Following that, he was a professor at Berkeley for 24 years. He has served as president of the California Association of Criminalists and as chairman of the Criminalistics Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He is the author of 185 published articles, some being translated into Russian, Spanish, French and Chinese. He has taught physical evidence methods in Spain, China, Colombia, Israel, Mexico, and India. He has worked on about 800 homicide cases over a period of 45 years and has testified in court on several hundred. He is currently working as an evidence specialist and crime scene investigator for the Napa County Sheriff’s Department.
Fred Tulleners, M.A., received his graduate degree in chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. He is the director of forensic science within UC Davis Extension and is responsible for the administrative issues affecting the UC Davis Master of Science in Forensic Science program. He is a former California Department of Justice laboratory director of the California Criminalistics Institute and the ASCLD accredited Sacramento-Santa Rosa Criminalistics laboratories. His areas of interest are the statistical aspects of firearms identification, the performance of national ballistic imaging databases and forensic alcohol issues.
Cecilia von Beroldingen, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Oregon in 1978. She did postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University and in the Division of Cellular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute. She was a research associate in the Forensic Science Program at UC Berkeley, investigating the application of PCR to the analysis of biological evidence. Von Beroldingen has also served as the technical leader of the DNA section of the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory. She joined the California Department of Justice DNA Laboratory in 2001 and is the director of the California Criminalistics Institute.
Timothy D. Weaver, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of anthropology. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His research focuses on making inferences from human skeletal remains. Current interests include cranial and postcranial evolution of Neadertals and modern humans, understanding present-day human cranial diversity, and sub-adult age estimation from the postcranial skeleton. He uses a variety of approaches, including 3-D geometric morphometrics, interactive computer visualization, biomechanics, and theoretical models from quantitative and population genetics.
Matthew Wood, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology. He received his degree from the University of California San Diego. His research program centers on investigating how oxidants and oxidative stress are perceived by organisms and regulate biological processes through oxidation and reduction of proteins. An American Heart Association Beginning Researcher Grant continues to fund my research group. As part of this research (Co-PI), in conjunction with the NMR community at UCD, he received an 800 MHz Bruker Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer. This instrument allows his group to expand the scope of our research into molecular mechanisms of toxicant-protein interaction. At the graduate level he instructs the ETX 220, Analysis of Toxicants course every Fall. This course has had an enrollment between 32-40 students. Many of the students have come from the Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Forensic Science graduate groups. In addition, students from Nutrition, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Anthropology have enrolled in the course.