With an increasing demand for forensic expertise across the nation, along with the popularity of numerous forensics-based TV shows and high-profile crime cases, the forensics industry has seen an explosion in students in recent years, which isn’t all bad, according to Dr. Hugh Berryman, director of Middle Tennessee State University’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education (FIRE).
Berryman said that since it was established in 2006, FIRE has grown considerably by focusing on three areas: education, research and service.
“Education efforts have centered on workshops designed to train law enforcement and forensic specialists,” he said. “Research topics have ranged from the specific, such as gunshot residue in wound tracks and the modification of bones and teeth by facial piercing, to the more general, such as exploring the utility of problem-based learn and technology in education.
“FIRE has served the Middle Tennessee community by providing free public lectures from internationally known forensic experts, an annual forensic day camp for high school students each summer and the Forensic Anthropology Search and Recovery Team (FASR Team),” Berryman said. “The FASR Team is composed of 10 students who assist me in processing crime scenes involving skeletal remains.”
As a board certified forensic anthropologist, Berryman involves his students in numerous forensic cases each year, and the team has worked cases for police and sheriff departments as well as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Nashville-Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office.
MTSU has also joined with more than a dozen of the region’s top forensics organizations, businesses and leaders to establish the Tennessee Valley Corridor Forensics Initiative. This group is working to bring resources and capabilities together in an effort to build, expand and strengthen the forensic science industry and use the region as a national example.
“There are considerable delivery resources and much forensic expertise throughout the Tennessee Valley Corridor,” Berryman said. “It is important that these resources are coordinated, and I am excited about the opportunity for FIRE to be a part of this effort.”
The forensics initiative was recently highlighted as a model economic development initiative in a Global Corporate Xpansion’s article, “Workforce Initiatives to Keep U.S. in a Leadership Position,” and in “The Buzz” on Business Xpansion Journal’s website.
“Preparing the next generation to enter the work force, and providing continuing education and training for current forensic science practitioners, is vital to the industry,” said Eric Abelquist, executive vice president of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, who is leading the forensics initiative effort. “And it can have a tremendous economic impact if handled correctly.”
FIRE isn’t taking the national challenge to raise industry standards and better prepare a qualified work force lightly. There are numerous efforts taking place at MTSU to help train students, as well as law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, attorneys, social workers and other groups in forensic science and Homeland Security.
“Our students are the future leaders of the forensics industry, and they need to be prepared to handle real-world scenarios, and that’s what we hope our program prepares them for,” said Berryman.
The program recently received three U.S. Department of Justice grants that totaled $1.3 million to support and fund many of the institute’s ongoing educational efforts and forensic activities. FIRE is also working on research in aerobic decomposition to present an alternative disposition in the event of mass casualties taking place.
“We are excited about the vast opportunities there are to utilize technology to help our current law enforcement and forensics practitioners and to educate the next generation,” Berryman said.
FIRE also provides Career and Technical Education Conferences for forensic health science teachers across the state of Tennessee, as well as an annual training conference that features an educational program on a particular forensic topic. The MTSU institute is also working on research in aerobic decomposition to present an alternative disposition in the event of mass casualties taking place.
Berryman and his staff are also planning a CSI: MTSU summer camp for children that will provide hands-on activities that will increase students’ knowledge of forensic science. Last year’s camp featured a trip to the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy, complete with a live burn, drug-sniffing K-9s and mock crime-scene investigations.
Abelquist applauds MTSU’s efforts and believes the increasing forensics capabilities and opportunities in the region will create more jobs and new careers.
“The key is for us all to work together,” Abelquist said. “By looking at the needs of our nation, and pulling together the vast resources we have right here in our region, like MTSU’s FIRE, we will be able to lead the nation in advancing forensic science.”
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