[330]PREEMINENT FORENSIC SCIENTIST SNOW VISITS MTSU MARCH 26

PREEMINENT FORENSIC SCIENTIST SNOW VISITS MTSU MARCH 26
World-Renowned Sleuth to Lecture on Human Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2008
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Dr. Hugh Berryman, 615-494-7896 or berryman@mtsu.edu

(MURFREESBORO)—One of the world’s preeminent forensic scientists will visit MTSU when renowned anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow delivers a lecture on human rights on Wednesday, March 26.
The free public lecture, sponsored by the Forensic Institute for Research and Education, or FIRE, will be held in the State Farm Room of the university’s Business and Aerospace Building at 6 p.m.
Snow will speak about his experiences working with the Kurdish people of northern Iraq and his testimony in the trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Snow’s fieldwork has taken him all over the world, working on mass excavations of gravesites in nations such as Argentina, Ethiopia, Croatia, the Philippines, Guatemala and Yugoslavia, among others.
“Dr. Snow is one the highest-profile forensic anthropologists in the world,” said Dr. Hugh Berryman, professor of anthropology and director of FIRE.
The lecture is the third in an ongoing series, “Legends of Forensic Science,” facilitated by FIRE. The organization, which was founded in March 2007, previously brought two other luminaries to campus as part of the lectureship. Last March, Dr. William “Bill” Bass, founder of the famous “Body Farm” at the University of Tennessee, lectured on “Interesting Forensic Cases from the Past.” And last October, Dr. Douglas Owsley, head of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution, spoke on forensic cases involving the Chesapeake region of the 17th century.
The latest addition to the lectureship series, Snow has an impressive resume of his own. He was responsible for the skeletal confirmations of the remains of John F. Kennedy, General George Custer and King Tutankhamen of Egypt, among others.
Along with the lectureships, Berryman and FIRE play an instrumental role in the furthering of forensic science at MTSU. The organization provides practical education and training for students and faculty in several scientific specialties and fosters research collaboration among faculty. Not to be forgotten, of course, are the students.
“I try to incorporate students whenever I can,” Berryman said.
Once such vehicle of student involvement is the relatively new Forensic Anthropology Search and Rescue Team, or FASR. As a volunteer group, FASR students assist law enforcement with recovery and documentation of remains from crime scenes. Only 10 students each year are selected to be a part of the group via an application process.
Berryman said he hopes that groups such as FIRE and FASR will continue to attract more attention. He believes one way to gain notoriety on campus and in the community is to continually host speakers as notable and influential as Snow.
“Internationally, he is as well-known and well-respected as anyone,” Berryman said.
For more information, contact Berryman at berryman@mtsu.edu.

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IN BRIEF: One of the world’s preeminent forensic scientists will visit MTSU when renowned anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow delivers a lecture on human rights on Wednesday, March 26. The free public lecture, sponsored by the Forensic Institute for Research and Education, or FIRE, will be held in the State Farm Room of the university’s Business and Aerospace Building at 6 p.m. Snow will speak about his experiences working with the Kurdish people of northern Iraq and his testimony in the trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as the field work that has taken him all over the world, working on mass excavations of gravesites in nations such as Argentina, Ethiopia, Croatia, the Philippines, Guatemala and Yugoslavia, among others. For more information, contact Dr. Hugh Berryman at berrymanu@mtsu.edu.


For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: This release was written by Casey Brown, a senior majoring in journalism at MTSU. We request your use of his byline if you use the release in its entirety.


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