The Radford University Forensic Science Institute (RUFSI) is an interdisciplinary institute whose goal is to promote and support forensic science education, research, and public service. The institute faculty are comprised of specialists in Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Archaeology.  The FSI mission is to serve as a center for innovative interdisciplinary forensic science research and to provide, with integrity, the highest quality educational training, consultation, and public service in the forensic sciences.  Its faculty also provide objective and unbiased court testimony in regard to medicolegal death cases in the Commonwealth and beyond. Learn more.

Science Daily: Forensic News

  • Forensics: New tool predicts eye, hair and skin color from a DNA sample of an unidentified individual

    An international team has developed a novel tool to accurately predict eye, hair and skin color from human biological material -- even a small DNA sample -- left, for example, at a crime scene or obtained from archeological remains. This all-in-one pigmentation profile tool provides a physical description of the person in a way that has not previously been possible by generating all three pigment traits together using a freely available webtool.

  • Can estimates from forensic handwriting experts be trusted in court?

    Forensic handwriting specialists are often called on to testify in court about the origins of a few lines of writing, or to determine whether a specific person has written a sentence. Following a new study, researchers are now advising courts to take a cautionary approach when using experience-based likelihood ratios as evidence.

  • Scientists decry lack of science in 'forensic science'

    Many of the 'forensic science' methods commonly used in criminal cases and portrayed in popular police TV dramas have never been scientifically validated and may lead to unjust verdicts, according to a new editorial.

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News and Upcoming Events

  • Dr. Cliff Boyd was recently honored for his 30 years of outstanding contributions in Archaeology at the    Annual Uplands Archaeology in the East Symposium XII held at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Feb. 24 – 26, 2017.
  • Research entitled “Comparability of Macroscopic, Microscopic, and Radiologically Defined Pediatric Antemortem Healing Stages” (by Drs. C. Boyd, D. Boyd, S. Roller, D. Foley) received the Ellis R. Kerley award for Outstanding Research in Forensic Anthropology at the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences for 2016-2017.
  • Dr. Donna Boyd was recently selected as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology as well as the American Standards Board, Anthropology Group, of the American Academy of Forensic Anthropology.

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