Center for Forensic Anthropology
New UF center will develop academic programs in forensic science and provide greater criminal investigation services
This article was originally printed in the December 1999 issue of CLASnotes.
by Health Sciences writer Nancy Dohn
Building
on the legacy of the late Bill Maples (Anthropology), an international
pioneer in forensic anthropology known for his work advancing the analysis
of human skeletal remains, the University of Florida has established the
William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine.
By unifying forensic services campuswide, the Maples Center will be able to provide greater criminal investigations assistance to medical examiners and law enforcement officials at the state and national levels.
The center will also offer cross-campus courses in toxicology, pathology, anthropology and criminology to help train students in the emerging disciplines of the forensic sciences.
Forensic science uses highly developed technologies to uncover physical evidence in a variety of fields. In criminal cases involving assault, rape or murder, forensic science can be used to detect the presence of unusual substances in victims, suspects or crime scenes. It can also be used to determine the genetic composition of blood and saliva left behind by a perpetrator and to identify unknown human skeletal remains.
In civil cases, forensic science makes it possible to monitor food processing, pesticide use, abuse of children and the elderly, among other applications.
"Unifying the existing forensic specialties at the University of Florida will help balance scholarship with research and service in forensic medicine. The aim of the center is to provide comprehensive services and innovative programs that relate to the medical and legal investigation of death," said Bruce Goldberger, Maples Center co-director and director of the UF Diagnostic Referral Laboratories Forensic Toxicology Laboratory.
"The center will be the first in the State University System to focus on forensic medicine. It creates an exciting exploratory environment for approaches and perspectives that transcend traditional forensic science research and education," said Anthony Falsetti (Anthropology), Maples Center co-director and director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory.
Paul Klein, a UF professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine, is the center's associate director.
The new center provides fitting tribute to Dr. Maples, an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of forensic anthropology who joined the UF faculty in 1968 and rose to the rank of distinguished service professor.
In the 1970s, Maples began assisting Florida's medical examiners with crime and accident investigations. He also developed a relationship with the US. Army central Identification Laboratory and provided consultation involving military personnel missing or killed during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
In a career that spanned nearly three decades, Dr. Maples was involved in more than 1,200 cases, many high profile. In 1992, he supervised a team of forensic scientists that identified the remains of the last Russian monarch, Czar Nicholas II, and his family who were killed by revolutionaries in 1918. Dr. Maples chronicled the demise of the czar, the truth about Pizarro's bones and other career highlights in the book Dead Men Do Tell Tales.
Before his death in 1997 from brain cancer, he assisted Dade County medical examiners in identifying victims of the ValuJet disaster in the Everglades.
The CLAS C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory, formed in 1991, focuses on forensic anthropology, which identifies skeletal or other remains suspected of being human. Under the direction of Dr. Maples and his successor, Falsetti, it has become a premier forensic anthropology laboratory. The C.A. Pound Laboratory continues to provide analyses of human skeletal remains to all 24 medical examiner districts in the state as well as to such groups as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the US Central Identification Laboratory and the FBI.
The Pound Laboratory, the College of Medicine's Forensic Toxicology Laboratory as well as several academic departments will be housed in the Maples Center.
Established in the early 1990s, the Forensic Toxicology Laboratory provides a variety of services including testing to determine the absence or presence of drugs and their metabolites in fluids and tissues after death. "Currently, the laboratory serves close to one-third of the state's medical examiner offices. Results are reported to medical examiners, who are responsible for evaluating the role of these substances in an individual's death," Goldberger said.
During its first year, the new Maples Center will launch two week-long educational programs in forensic anthropology and forensic toxicology for medical examiners and law enforcement personnel. In addition, the center will provide educational and training opportunities in toxicology, pathology, anthropology and criminal justice to attract the best and brightest graduate students from around the country.
The center's goal over the next two years will be to solicit research funding and to expand services into the southeastern and the northeastern United States. Plans also include the recruitment of a nationally recognized forensic anthropologist to the faculty in fall 2000.
Leaders of the center hope to formalize a new degree program in forensic medicine during the fourth year. Construction of a 5,000 square-foot-building to house laboratories and provide research facilities and classrooms is slated for year five.
