Forensic & Investigative Science
Faculty and Staff
The Forensic and Investigative Science (FIS) program has amassed a faculty with over 50 years of combined working experience in forensic laboratories. Unlike many other programs, many of our faculty are full-time instructors, lecturers, and professors rather than part-time adjunct instructors. Teaching WVU students is our only and our most important job. Our students learn about the real world of forensic science from those who have done casework, who have testified, and who have processed crime scenes.
Administration:
Dr. Keith B. Morris
Director
Contact
Dr. Morris joined WVU as forensic projects manager in 2004 before becoming director of the FIS program in April of 2007. Dr. Morris is an internationally known forensic chemist and laboratory manager who previously oversaw the operations of all forensic laboratories in South Africa. He became assistant director in 2006. Dr. Morris teaches Crime Scene Investigation 1 and 2, Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Quality Assurance and assists the FBI with teaching of latent fingerprint examination.
Administrative and Support Staff:
Ms. Lori Britton
Academic Advisor
Contact
Ms. Dianna Griffin
Internship Coordinator
Contact
Mr. Michael G. Bell
Facilities and Laboratory Coordinator;Lecturer
Contact
Mike was a founding member of the New Mexico State Police Crime Laboratory and spent 13 years there as a forensic chemist and crime scene analyst. He is a certified bomb technician and lectures in bloodstain pattern analysis. He responsible for all of the forensic facilities at WVU, as well as setting up mock crime scenes for many classes.
Faculty:
Dr. Patrick Buzzini
Assistant professor
Patrick Buzzini joined the Forensic & Investigative Science Program at West Virginia University in June 2007, where he teaches several undergraduate and graduate courses. He graduated from the Forensic Science Institute of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2001, where he also completed his PhD. His education covers a wide variety of evidence types; he has several years of experience in research, teaching and casework, mainly in the field of trace evidence.
Mr. Kenneth Bauer
Lecturer
Forensic Photography, Advanced Forensic Photography
Contact
Kenneth Bauer, a retired forensic photographer teaches the Forensic Photography course. Bauer worked for 36 years in Washington, DC as a forensic photographer: eighteen years with the FBI and eighteen with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Crime Lab. Bauer brings his extensive experience in the photographic preservation of fingerprints, documents, physical evidence, and crime scenes with him into the classroom to help his students learn and truly understand the techniques of forensic photography. During his career, he also taught several courses on the Techniques of Forensic Photography to law enforcement personnel.
Ken is a past president of the Association of Professional Investigative Photographers (APIP) and is currently a member of the International Association of Identification.
Hon. Russell M. Clawges
Circuit Court Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit
Testimony and Moot Court
The Hon. Russell M. Clawges, Jr., is a Circuit Court Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit. He was appointed Circuit Judge on January 10, 1997, elected to complete the unexpired term in November, 1998 and re-elected to a full term in November, 2000. Prior to serving on the bench, he was a partner in the Morgantown law firm of Furbee, Amos, Webb & Critchfield and served as an Adjunct Lecturer in Trial Advocacy at the West Virginia University College of Law. Judge Clawges received his BA in mathematics in 1971 and his JD (Order of the Coif) in 1974 from West Virginia University. Judge Clawges currently assists with teaching the Court Testimony course.
Mr. William Wilmoth
Partner, Steptoe & Johnson Law Firm
Law and Evidence
Contact
Mr. William D. Wilmoth, teaches the Law and Evidence course, and is a partner in the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson. His practice concentrates on complex civil litigation. He is named in the 2003-2004 edition of the book, “The Best Lawyers in America,” and is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. From July 4, 1993 until March 1, 1999, he was United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, having been nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the United States Senate, and was an Assistant United States Attorney from 1977 to 1980. He was a member of Attorney General Janet Reno’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys, and chaired the Department of Justice’s Committee on Civil and Financial Litigation. He was also a member of the Committee on White Collar Crime and the Committee on Health Care Fraud.
Mr. Max Houck
Director, Forensic Science Initiative
Contact
Max M. Houck is the Director of the Forensic Science Initiative, a multi-million dollar program that develops research and professional training for forensic scientists and related professionals. Houck is a trace evidence expert and forensic anthropologist who was assigned to the Trace Evidence Unit at the FBI Laboratory from 1992 to 2001. While at the FBI, Houck worked over 800 cases, including several major cases. Just before he joined WVU, he was assigned to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, to assist with the examination and identification of the victims of the 9/11/01 Pentagon attack victims. Houck was the recipient of a Quality Award in 1999 from the FBI Laboratory and the American Society of Testing and Materials Forensic Science Award in 2000.
Prior to his career at the FBI, Houck was the forensic anthropologist and a trace evidence examiner at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Fort Worth, Texas. While at that office, he coordinated the anthropological recovery and scientific examinations of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. Houck is a graduate of Michigan State University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, among other professional organizations. He has co-authored and edited two books of forensic case reviews, Mute Witnesses and Trace Evidence Analysis, published by Academic Press. He has also published an upper-level introductory forensic science textbook with Dr. Jay Siegel.
Departmental Faculty
Biology
Dr. Clifton Bishop
Dr. Jeffrey Wells
Dr. David Ray
Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dr. Patrick Callery
Chemistry
Dr. Suzanne Bell
Contact
Dr. Bell received her BS in chemistry and police science from Northern Arizona University and an MS in forensic science at the University of New Haven. She worked as a forensic and analytical chemist for the New Mexico State Police and for the Los Alamos National Laboratory before returning to university to obtain a PhD in chemistry from New Mexico State University. She was a tenured full professor at Eastern Washington University for ten years before joining the faculty of WVU in the Bennett Department of Chemistry in 2003. Working with the Washington State Patrol, she launched a forensic chemistry program at EWU.
