Student Performance Data
Enrollment/Graduates Data
| Degree Program: M.S. in Forensic Science |
Academic Year - past 3rd year: 2021-2022 |
Academic Year - past 2nd year: 2022-2023 |
Academic Year - previous year: 2023-2024 |
|
# of FT students enrolled in degree program |
15 |
23 |
26 |
|
# of students enrolled in each concentration /emphasis/ track (if applicable) |
Chem-Drug/Tox: 4 Chem-Trace:1 Biology: 9 Phy. Evi. Ana.:1 |
Chem-Drug/Tox: 7 Chem-Trace:1 Biology: 14 Phy. Evi. Ana.:1 |
Chem-Drug/Tox: 8 Chem-Trace:4 Biology: 13 Phy. Evi. Ana.:1 |
|
# of graduates in reported in each year |
15 |
23 |
26 |
Post-Graduation Survey Data
|
Degree Program: M.S. in Forensic Science |
Academic Year - past 3rd year: 2021-2022 |
Academic Year - past 2nd year: 2022-2023 |
Academic Year - previous year: 2023-2024 |
|
# of graduates with job offers |
13 |
20 |
21 |
|
# of graduates admitted into advanced degree program |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
# of graduates unreachable / did not respond |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Directed Research (DR) Locations
| Degree Program: M.S. in Forensic Science |
Academic Year - past 3rd year: 2021-2022 |
Academic Year - past 2nd year: 2022-2023 |
Academic Year - previous year: 2023-2024 |
|
# of FT students enrolled in degree program |
15 |
23 |
26 |
|
DR performed on-site (i.e., in the VCU Department of Forensic Science) |
13 |
18 |
20 |
|
DR performed off-site (i.e., not in the VCU Department of Forensic Science) |
2 |
5 |
6 |
Directed Research/Internship Titles and Research Location Information
|
Academic Year |
Type of Experience (internship, research, or capstone): |
Title or Topic of project / area of study: |
Location (applicable if internship is the ‘type of experience’): |
|
Past 3rd year: 2021-2022 |
Research |
Eliminating Interference from Blood Protein in the RED-BLEU Assay for Detection of EDTA in Blood Evidence Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
Research/ Internship |
Determination of Cotinine in Urine by Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry |
DCLS |
|
|
Research |
Impact of 1,4-Dithiothreitol (DTT) on Microbial Community Structures Associated with Human Semen Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Classification and Differentiation of Forensically Relevant Cell Populations using Imaging Flow Cytometry |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The Analysis of Commercially Available Kratom Products in Richmond, Virginia |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Developing a Unified Method for the Analysis of Five Ethanol Metabolites: EtG, EtS, GTOL, 5-HTOL, and 5-HIAA using UPLC-MS/MS |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Using a non-destructive method to estimate the number of contributors and predict DNA yield in touch DNA mixture |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research |
Optimization of a Microfluidic Device for Cell Capture Using Optical Trapping |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Stability and Variation within Donors of miRNA Markers for Body Fluid Identification |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Identification of the New Synthetic Opioid Bucinnazine using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Testing the Efficacy of Surface Swab Sampling to Determine Post-Mortem Submersion Interval (PMSI), Using the Microbiome Colonization of Skeletal Remains Submerged in a Lotic Environment |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
A Quantifiler™ Trio-based HRM Mixture Screening Assay for the QuantStudio™ 6 Flex qPCR platform |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Optimization and Comparison of Methods for Separation of Spermatozoa from Superabsorbent Polymer-Containing Forensic Evidence |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Development of a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assay for Detection of miRNAs |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
A Comparison of Cyanoacrylate Fuming Followed by MBD Dye Staining and Gun Bluing for Development of Latent Fingerprints on Cartridge Cases |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Past 2nd year: 2022-2023 |
Research |
Evaluation of direct-to-amplification cell lysis techniques for forensically relevant non-sperm cells |
VCU DFS |
|
Research |
The Development of a Novel Extraction Method for Synthetic Opioids in Rabbit Bone Using the Bead Ruptor Elite |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Morphological and autofluorescence signatures for the identification of vaginal cells in mixture samples containing saliva and/or epidermal cells |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Horizontal and Vertical Transmission of Microbes Associated with Blow Flies of Forensic Importance |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Impact of Mouthwash on Microbiome Associated with Human Saliva and its Implication in Bacterial Signature Based Body Fluid Identification Method |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Testing the Accuracy of Osteometric Pair-matched Leg Bones from the East Marshall Street Well with INNULs |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Development and validation of microRNA markers for forensic body fluid identification using RT-qPCR |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Optimization of A Microfluidic Device Methodology for Optical Trapping Epithelial Cells in a Mixture |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Evaluation Of The Age Of Evidence In Mock Biological Touch Evidence Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Determination of the Trace Elemental Signature of Drywall Dust and its Implication as Forensic Evidence |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Head(space) to Head(space): Volatile Analysis by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry/ Flame Ionization Detector (GC-MS/FID) and Gas Chromatography-dual FID (GC-FID) |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Developing a Unified Extraction Method for the Detection and Quantitation of Ethanol Use Biomarkers: ETS, ETG, PEth, HIAA, HTOL, and GTOL in Blood, Urine, and Oral Fluid |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
A Comparison of Anthropological Methods and Next Generation Sequencing for Population Affinity in the East Marshall Street Well |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
“Assessing the Detectability of Cannabinoid Analogs (Delta-8 THC, Delta-10 THC and CBD) and their Major Metabolites in Six Commercial Cannabinoid Urine Screening Kits” |
VCU MCV |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Validation of Whole Horse Blood for the Confirmation and Quantitation of Benzodiazepines Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MSMS) |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research |
Assessment of the Acidified Hydrogen Peroxide Method on Uncontrolled Fired Cartridge Case Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
A Non-Destructive Method to Predict DNA Yield and Presence of a Mixture in Trace DNA |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Evaluation of cytokeratin-specific antibody and autofluorescent signals as predictors of time since deposition for saliva samples |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research |
Forensic DNA Quantitation of Mock Casework Samples Using Flow Cytometry Analysis |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Cannabinoid Containing E-Liquids |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Analysis of Forensic Relevant Cell Mixtures Using Autofluorescence Profiling and Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Incorporating Tetracaine as an Internal Standard for the Identification of Active Ingredients in Pharmaceutical Samples by Direct Analysis in Real Time coupled Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (DART-TOF-MS) |
Maryland State Police |
|
|
Research |
Testing the accuracy of osteometric pair-matched arm bones from the East Marshall Street Well with Insertion/Null (INNUL) genotyping |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Previous year: 2023-2024 |
Research |
Determine of proportion of nucleated epidermal cell within touch DNA samples using flow cytometry and autofluorescence profiling |
VCU DFS |
|
Research |
Biological signatures for differentiating epidermal cell populations from different body regions |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The Creation of a Gunshot Residue (GSR) Databank for the Quantitative Determination of Muzzle-to-Target Distance in Shooting Cases |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Fat and water content effects of three food substrates (ground veal, ground beef, and beef liver) on Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) development and mortality |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Development of a simple tooth sample preparation procedure for RapidHIT DNA Processing |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
The effect of oily contaminants on DNA extraction efficiency using DNAIQTM |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research |
Bones as an Alternative Matrix for the Detection of New Synthetic Opioids in Cold Cases: Introducing New Animal Models for Bone:Blood Correlation Studies |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Discrimination of Blue Denim Fibers Utilizing Physical Characteristics, Optical Properties, Fluorescence Microscopy, UV-Vis Microspectrophotometry, and Microchemical Testing |
VA DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
The Validation and Implementation of a Dual Configuration Direct Analysis in Real Time/Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (DART/UHPLC-MS/MS) System for the Analysis of Seized-Drug Submissions |
DEA |
|
|
Research |
Using the microbiome to assess the health status of individuals recovered from the East Marshall St Well |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The Direct Impact of Acetone on Spermatozoa When Processing Sexual Assault Evidentiary Items |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Testing and evaluation of Diamond Dye to determine the suitability of epithelial cells found on cartridge cases for DNA analysis. |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The Creation of a Gun Shot Residue (GSR) Databank for the Reliable Identification of Ammunition |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Cellular Autofluorescence for the determination of time since deposition of whole blood samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The reassociation of remains found in the East Marshall Street Well using insertion/null genotyping and short tandem repeats. |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Development of a Molecular Assay for the Detection of Natural Cannabis in Commercially Available CBD Products |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Assessing INNULs and Loci Count Thresholds in Forensic DNA Profiling: Integration and Impact Evaluation in Familias Software |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Determining Cannabinoid Acetate Analog (Δ 9-THC-O-A, Δ 8-THC-O-A, and CBD-di-O-A) Metabolites Using Brain and Liver Enzymes to Determine the Structure and Rate of Metabolism |
VCU MCV |
|
|
Research |
Development and validation of a method to separate a host of phytocannabinoids and lab created cannabinoids using LC-MS/MS |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
The Determination of Metabolites for Bucinnazine and its Derivatives Using Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Age and Species Discrimination of Calliphoridae Pupae by Direct Analysis in Real Time with Mass Spectrometry |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Development of a Method for Partial and Complete Collagenase I Digestion of Bos taurus Bone Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
Detection and Quantitation of Ethanol via Biomarkers: EtG, EtS, HIAA, HTOL/GTOL, and PEth in Urine, Oral Fluid, and Blood |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research/ Internship |
Development of an Optimized Solvent Extraction Protocol for the Analysis of Smokeless Powders by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). |
ATF |
|
|
Research |
Evaluation of Charcoal Strip Method Extraction Efficiency Under Varying Conditions of Fire Debris Samples |
VCU DFS |
|
|
Research |
A Microfluidic Device to Separate Biological Components from a Cellular Mixture using Dual-Trap Optical Tweezers |
VCU DFS |