News

The Forensic Science Division of the Department of Chemistry in CoS successfully organized a grand event "Forensic Science Welcome Back Pizza Party" to kick off this new Fall semester. The event received great support from Dean Dr. Kirken and Chair Dr. Cabrera and many other faculty members and the Scientific Association of Forensics (SAF). This party serves multiple purposes: 1) to provide an opportunity for students to exchange and mingle after the summer break; 2) Welcome new FS students; 3) welcome back to the new Fall semester; 4) introduce SAF and help students be involved in the forensic community at UTEP.  Dean Dr. Kirken, Chair Dr. Cabrera, and Program Director Dr. James Li gave welcome remarks and introduced recent updates of the FS program in the event. About 90 people including many faculty members such as Associate Dean Dr. Walsh and former Biology interim Chair Dr. Charles Spencer attended the event.  The Academic advisor Ms. Navarro also showed up to answer curriculum related questions from students.

Forensic Science student Angel Gutierrez gave a presentation on new methods of pathogen detection to aid rapid forensic pathology at the 2024 AAFS (American Academy of Forensic Sciences) Conference held in Denver in late Feb, 2024. Angel is an ASSETS undergraduate researcher in Dr. James Li’s research group.

From left to right, Alysha Green, president, Crystal Lopez, vice-President, and Kristina Bolivar, secretary. The first meeting of the UTEP Forensic Science elected officers at their September meeting. Dr. Fernando Rodriguez, Director of the UTEP Criminal Justice Program is the featured speaker at the October 28th meeting of the club.