I was selected to present a graduate student poster at the annual IAI Forensic Educational Conference. The International Association for Identification is the oldest and largest forensic organization dating back over 100 years. Each year, practitioners in fields who specialize in forensic science, technology, latent prints, forensic art, and many other disciplines come together for a week filled with lectures and workshops. This year the conference was held at the National Harbor and it was absolutely one of the best conferences.

In my field as a genealogist, sometimes I discover that the oldest photos available in historical collections are criminal photos including mugshots. One of the oldest photos that I have found was a mugshot from 1916. The mugshot was paired with a Bertillon card which I learned predated fingerprinting. The Bertillon System was developed in the 19th century by an anthropologist named Alphonse Bertillon. I was very intrigued by this discovery while attending the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University followed by completing a certificate in Public Anthropology from American University.

I decided to delve deeper into learning more about how to improve on the racial categories used in forensic facial reconstruction especially for underrepresented groups which led to presenting my student poster entitled, “Combining Forensic Facial Reconstruction and Investigative Genetic Genealogy to Identify Human Remains and Develop Granular Facial Indices for Underrepresented Groups.”

This conference was attended by the best forensic experts in the world from more than 20 countries including Mexico, Italy, Colombia, and Brazil. Special thanks to my instructors, Karen T. Taylor and Dr. Blaine T. Bettinger (Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh) for providing the tools and knowledge necessary to present on this important and timely topic.

#forensics#IAI2023#mugshot#DNA#geneticgenealogy#anthropology#bertillon#forensicart#forensicanthropology