The National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS) is a State of Florida Type II Research Center at the University of Central Florida.  Our mission is to provide relevant and responsive forensic science research, training and operational support to communities that rely on science to achieve justice. Our team of chemists, biochemists, physicists and statisticians work individually and in synergistic teams to perform basic and applied forensic science research. The Center also develops and curates databases and provides continuing education in support of the forensic communities.

NCFS at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences

Faculty and students will be presenting their research the week of February 19 – 25 at the AAFS annual meeting being held in Baltimore Maryland.

Wednesday, February 19th

CRIMINALISTICS
Poster Session
11:30 am – 1:00 pm B28 Exploring Alternative Solvents for Dichloromethane as an Extraction Solvent of Sexual Lubricant Components Using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy
Safiya Best, MScFS*; Ashley Gamache; Candice Bridge, PhD

TOXICOLOGY
Poster Session
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm L30 Matrix-Matched Standards for Quantitative Elemental and Molecular Analysis of Hair in Forensic Toxicology
Kaitlyn Bonilla, MS*; Ashley Fox; Chloe Phillips, BS; Matthieu Baudelet, PhD
(FSF Emerging Forensic Scientist Award Poster Presentation)

Thursday, February 20th

GENERAL
Session I – Evidence Identification
8:45 am – 9:00 am F22 A High-Throughput, Multi-Biochemical Analysis of Pollen Grains for Their Identification in a Forensic Context
Jack Trimble, BS*; Kaitlyn Cierpik; Camron Melendez; James McAleer; Matthieu Baudelet, PhD

CRIMINALISTIC
Session III – Forensic Investigations, NIST Libraries, and Source Identification
10:30 am – 10:45 am B119 The Development of a Protocol for the Elemental Analysis of Tire Marks in Road Crime Forensics
Matthieu Baudelet, PhD*; John Lucchi, PhD; Micaela Hernandez, BS; Alex Curto, BA

GENERAL
Session 1 – AI Technology
1:00 pm – 1:15 pm F32 Advancing AI-Enhanced Topic Modeling with BERT in Forensic Text Analysis
Amir Alipour Yengejeh, MCS*; Larry Tang, PhD

PATHOLOGY/BIOLOGY
Session I – Entomology and Ecology
2:40 pm – 3:00 pm I54 Visualizing and Clustering the Species in the Mixture of Pollen Flow Cytometry
Slun Booppasiri, MS*; Matthieu Baudelet, PhD; Jack Trimble, BS; Larry Tang, PhD

CRIMINALISTICS
Session 1- Biomarkers, Body Fluids, and Y-STRs
2:45 pm – 3:00 pm B82 The Recovery of Probative aSTR and Y-STR Profiles From Single or a Few Micromanipulated Sperm Cells
Morgan Peters, MS*; Kaitlin Huffman, PhD; John Ballantyne, PhD; Erin Hanson, PhD
(FSF Emerging Forensic Scientist Award Oral Presentation)

Friday, February 21st

TOXICOLOGY
Novel Psychoactive Substances
8:45 am – 9:00 am L60 Metabolite Profile Commonalities of Methoxylated Fentanyl Analogs
Jillian Morgan, MS*; Candice Bridge, PhD          

ANTHROPOLOGY
Poster Session
11:30 am – 1:00 pm A87 The Development of a Matrix-Matched Reference Material for Quantitative Elemental Analysis of Bone
Kristen Livingston, BS*; Amanda Williams; Juliana Baez; Matthieu Baudelet, PhD
(FSF Emerging Forensic Scientist Award Poster Presentation)