November 13, 2009

Fresno State forensic science graduate student Michael Gonzalez, shown with mentor Dr. Kevin Miller, won the 2010 Wildlife Forensic Science Award from the Society for Wildlife Forensic Sciences (SWFS) for outstanding thesis work that has been recognized by the FBI.  On the screen is a strand of zebra hair.

Michael Gonzalez, a forensic science student at California State University, Fresno, has received the 2010 Wildlife Forensic Science award from the Society for Wildlife Forensic Sciences (SWFS) for outstanding thesis work that has been recognized by the FBI.

Gonzalez developed a computerized hair database that can be used by practitioners around the world to analyze class characteristics in hundreds of different species of mammals, including the world’s most endangered and highly trafficked.

A second-year graduate student from Diamond Bar, Gonzalez is enrolled in the Professional Science Master’s Degree Program in the Chemistry Department of the College of Science and Mathematics and is the program’s first Hispanic student.

Created in September 2008, Gonzalez’ Internet-based database will ultimately hold more than 2,000 mammalian species and has already become well known in the professional forensic world including the prestigious National Institute of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reports Dr. Kevin Miller, assistant professor of chemistry and criminology at Fresno State and director of the Forensic Science master’s program. He is Gonzalez’ faculty mentor.

Under Miller’s direction, Gonzalez began creating and compiling the database from  hair specimens found in the collection of Fresno State’s Biology Department. This work quickly spread to include eight different body regions of each animal and is being conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Game Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon.

Gonzalez will receive cash and an invitation to present his work at the inaugural meeting of the SWFS in Oregon in April.

The results of Gonzalez’ pilot work were presented last summer at the Trace Evidence Symposium in Florida, which was co-sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the FBI. The symposium is an international forum for forensic professionals to learn from each other and present new ways to analyze forensic trace evidence recovered from crime scenes.

Dr. Edward Espinoza, deputy director of the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory, said Gonzalez’ computerized online database “will provide a valuable digital resource for researchers and forensic investigators."

Miller elaborated on the database’s significance.

“Animal poaching is a multi-billion dollar industry, second only to narcotic trafficking,” Miller said. “The endangered species represented in this database help laboratory personnel who do not have large reference collections of their own to identify key structural features of the hairs they are likely to encounter.”

The database also is a valuable resource for smaller forensic laboratories, Miller added, such as local labs in the Central Valley that may not have dedicated trace evidence examiners on staff.

“These smaller local labs can use the data base as a reference for non-human hairs that they are likely to be asked to identify from the scenes of violent crimes,” he said.

The Professional Science Master’s Degree Program in Forensic Science started in 2006 and now has nine students enrolled. Gonzalez’ research is conducted through the Forensic Biotechnology Institute of California, a nonprofit ancillary unit of Fresno State established through the College of Science and Mathematics.

The institute, which furthers teaching and research in biological science and technology with a particular emphasis on forensics, provides technical leadership to the law enforcement and criminal justice communities by applying advancements in biotechnology to the law.

Graduate students are expected to learn lab and field research techniques, practice writing and submitting grants, design and execute experiments, and submit their results to professional societies for presentation and peer-reviewed journals for publication. 

“Our student-to-faculty ratio is still low,” Miller said, “and we have exceptional students with whom to work. I am very pleased with their accomplishments.”

Students in Fresno State’s forensic science program interact with various local, regional, state and federal laboratories, including the California Department of Justice crime lab located on the Fresno State campus. Students also are doing internships at the Kern County District Attorney's Office, the San Mateo Sheriff's Office and the National Wildlife Forensic Laboratory.

Miller joined the Fresno State criminology faculty in 1996 after extensive professional service, including serving as chief of the FBI’s Forensic Biology Section and research biologist for the bureau’s Counter-terrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit. His areas of expertise are forensic nuclear and mitochondrial DNA and serology, and identification of human remains and highly degraded evidence samples.  He supervises Fresno State’s Human Identification (HID) Laboratory in the Science Building on campus, which is equipped with the latest technology used in forensic genetic laboratories throughout the country, including ABI genetic analyzers, real-time PCR and robotic and micro-capillary instrumentation. 

The Forensic Biotechnology Institute of California is co-located with Agriculture and Priority Pollutants Laboratories (APPL) at the Clovis Research and Industrial Park. The new APPL facility will hold an open house at 908 N. Temperance Ave. from 4-7 p.m. on Friday, November 13.

For more information, contact Miller at 559.278.4223 or by e-mail at kemiller@csufresno.edu. 

University Communications news intern Amanda Fine contributed to this copy.

Related Links:

The Mammalian Forensic Hair Database:

College of Science and Mathematics

Master's Degree Program in Forensic Science 

Forensic Biotechnology Institute of California