About the Authors
Max M. Houck
Dr. Max M. Houck is an internationally-recognized forensic expert with research interests in forensic science, education, and the forensic enterprise and its industries. He has worked in the private sector, the public sector (at a medical examiner's office and for the FBI Laboratory), and in academia. Dr. Houck has published in a wide variety of areas in the field, in books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journals. His anthropology and trace evidence casework includes the Branch Davidian Investigation, the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon, the D.B. Cooper case, the US Embassy bombings in Africa, and the West Memphis Three case, among hundreds of others. He served for six years as the Chair of the Forensic Science Educational Program Accreditation Commission (FEPAC). Dr. Houck is a founding Co-Editor of the journal Forensic Science Policy and Management and has also co-authored a major textbook with Dr. Jay Siegel, "Fundamentals of Forensic Science." Dr. Houck lives and works in the Washington, DC area.
Frank Crispino
Forensically educated at the University of Lausanne (MPhil & PhD), Frank Crispino is a former Cadet of the French Air Force Academy and a just retired Colonel of the French Gendarmerie, qualified from the French War College (the Gendarmerie is a French police with a military status). During his law enforcement career, he served as:
- Head of two Gendarmerie regional criminal investigations departments in Bourges and Bordeaux, in charge of investigating serious, organized international crimes and preventing terrorist incidents;
- Deputy chief of the anti-terrorism office at the General Directorate of the French Gendarmerie in Paris.
- Head of the forensic anthropology department (1993-1997) and of the fingerprint department (1997-1999) at the Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN – Forensic Lab of the Gendarmerie).
- Forensic adviser of the Brigadier General, head of the forensic assets of the Gendarmerie, in charge of proposing new strategies to develop forensic intelligence.
From February 1999 to July 2002 he provided forensic capacities to the Palestinian Authority granted by the European Union within the Oslo Agreements, and became Scientific and Forensic Adviser of the European Union Special Adviser Office (EUSAO) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on counter-terrorism. He left the Middle East after the destruction of the Palestinian forensic assets in 2002.
In the summer of 2012, Frank Crispino joined the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, Canada, to launch the first forensic academic programme in this French spoken Province, aiming at educating forensic scientists dedicated to security traces investigation and analysis. Professor Crispino is the author of about 30 papers in various forensic and security journal.
Terry McAdam
Mr. McAdam has 26 years of experience in the field of forensic investigations. He is currently employed as the Supervisory Agent In Charge of the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory in Tacoma, Washington. He is also a proud graduate of the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1979. He also earned a National Certificate in Chemistry from the University of Ulster in 1977. Terry McAdam has been continuously employed as a criminal forensic scientist since 1977. He has served both the Washington State Patrol (16 years) and The Northern Ireland Forensic Science Service (10 years) with distinction for more than a quarter century. He has developed subject matter expertise and decades of total experience in the following areas of trace evidence:
- Glass analysis (17 years)
- Paint analysis (17 years)
- Small particle identification (17 years)
- Fibers (11 years)
- Explosives (3 years)
- Hair (14 years)
- Clothing damage interpretation (17 years)
- Scanning Electron Microanalysis (17 years)
- Shoe impressions (11 years)
- Tire impressions (10 years)
Furthermore, during the course of his career, Terry McAdam has personally processed over 330 violent felony crime scenes, to include homicides and rapes (175), arsons and bombings (60), hit and run accidents (45), and firearms assaults (50). Terry McAdam has also played an integral role in the investigations of both the Robert Lee Yates (Spokane and Tacoma serial murder) and the Gary Leon Ridgeway (Green River serial murder) cases. He has testified in various felony cases in superior and federal courts throughout the State of Washington on 163 occasions involving trace evidence and crime scene processing. In addition to his academic credentials and work experience, Terry McAdam has successfully completed nearly 800 hours of additional education and training in forensic science and crime scene technology during his tenure with the Washington State Patrol.