What Teeth Can Tell Us About Age: A Q&A with ISHI Student Ambassador Maria Josefina Castagnola
In forensic anthropology, age estimation from adult skeletal remains is one of the field’s harder problems. Classical methods lose accuracy as people get older, and biological fluids — the tissue base for most methylation-based age estimation research — aren’t always what a scene gives you. Maria Josefina Castagnola, a PhD student at New Jersey Institute […]
This Week in Forensic Science
No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door! Suspect Arrested in 1990 Cold Case Homicide of 27-Year-Old Woman (Forensic – 4/13/2026) Sussex […]
Dear Mentor: When Burnout Isn’t About the Work
Burnout in forensic labs is a leadership problem — but not always for the reason leaders assume. The instinct is to look at the caseload. The backlog. The mandatory overtime and the court deadlines and the sample volume that doesn’t match staffing levels. Those things are real. But according to the mentors of the Forensic […]
When One Identification Changes Everything: The Robert Eugene Brashers Case
The Wednesday keynote at ISHI 37 examines the Robert Eugene Brashers case — a multi-decade, multi-jurisdictional investigation resolved through the intersection of STR analysis, forensic genetic genealogy, and interagency collaboration — and the perspectives that emerge when a single identification reaches across decades of connected harm. The moment a DNA profile links one case to […]
This Week in Forensic Science
No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door! Kenosha Police Department, Wisconsin DOJ, & FBI Leverage Othram Technology to Identify the Suspect […]
What Would You Tell Yourself at the Start: A Conversation with the ISHI Advisory Committee
The ISHI Advisory Committee was asked what advice they’d give themselves at the beginning of their forensic science careers. The answers reveal something worth sitting with: most of the hard-won wisdom has less to do with science than with the person doing it. https://youtu.be/5bPMThbh6PY Pam Marshall’s answer is about mistakes. “Be patient with the process. […]
Ukraine’s Missing: What It Takes to Build DNA Infrastructure During an Ongoing War
Sara Huston, Co-founder and President of DNA Bridge and researcher at Northwestern University’s Lurie Children’s Hospital, sat down at ISHI 36 to discuss one of the most complex humanitarian forensics challenges in the world: the missing persons crisis created by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Scale of the Problem Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in […]
This Week in Forensic Science
No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door! Oregon State Police Identify Missing Man Mark Smith 50 Years After He Vanished (KATU2 […]
What the Witness Stand Actually Requires: Introducing ISHI On-Demand’s Expert Witness Testimony Module
You’ve reviewed the case file. You know the results. You’re confident in the science. Then the defense attorney asks you a question you didn’t expect. The jury looks confused. A follow-up question rephrases what you just said in a way that isn’t quite right — and now you have to decide, in real time, whether […]