Day 1 Wrap-Up

John M. Butler, PhD

NIST Fellow & Special Assistant to the Director for Forensic Science

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Forensics@NIST 2020 5 November 2020 Virtual Meeting
We Are At the End of Day 1...
This Presentation is Intended 

as an “Index” to this Meeting

• At the end of the “book”

• Developed after the “text” is available (on the fly throughout today)

• Rarely “read” unless you are looking for a specific topic

• Cannot provide all details – go see the original material!
Acknowledgments and NIST Disclaimer

NIST Special Programs Office: Corrine Lloyd, Robert Ramotowski, Shyam Sunder

NIST Conference Program and Audiovisual Services: (many people behind 

the scenes – Crissy Robinson, Pauline Truong, Kevin Hill, Joseph Nastus)

Points of view are mine and do not necessarily represent the official position 

or policies of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Certain commercial entities are identified in order to specify experimental 

procedures as completely as possible. In no case does such identification imply 

a recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, nor does it imply that any of the entities identified are necessarily 

the best available for the purpose.
A Brief History of the Forensics@NIST Meetings

• 2010 (December 6-8): limited to NIST and NIJ staff

• Keynotes: Dr. Patrick Gallagher, NIST Director and Dr. John Laub, NIJ Director

• 2012 (November 28-30)

Keynote: Dr. Tjark Tjin-a-Tsoi, Netherlands Forensic Institute CEO, 

• “Trends, Challenges and Strategy in Forensics”

• 2014 (December 3-4)

Keynote: Judge Jed Rakoff, U.S. District Court Justice, 

• “Are Judges Losing Confidence in Forensic Science?”

• 2016 (November 8-9) 

Keynote: Professor Jules Epstein, Professor of Law at Temple University, 

• “Forensic Evidence: Thoughts of an Accidental Tourist”

• 2018 (November 7-8)

Keynotes: Dr. John Butler (Nov. 7) & Dr. Sheila Willis (Nov. 8)
Forensics@NIST 2020 Day 1 “Index”

Welcome Statistics CSAFE Efforts Forensic Genetics Firearms & Toolmarks

Shyam Sunder

Acting Director, 

Special Programs Office

Robert Ramotowski

Forensic Sci. Program Manager, 

Special Programs Office

Will Guthrie

SED Division Chief

Alicia Carriquiry

Iowa State University Peter Vallone

Group Leader

Katherine Gettings

Research Biologist

1633 registrants

Charless Fowlkes

UC - Irvine

Heike Hofmann

Iowa State University

Brandon Garrett

Duke University

https://www.business2community.com/big-data/statistics-big-datas-biggest-hurdle-01214657

Nien-Fan Zhang

SED Statistician

Steve Lund

SED Statistician

Hari Iyer

SED Statistician

Statistical Engineering Division, 

Information Technology Laboratory

Applied Genetics Group, 

Material Measurement Laboratory

NIST Center of 

Excellence

Surface and Interface Metrology Group, 

Physical Measurement Laboratory

Special Programs Office

Johannes Soons

Team Leader

Michael Stocker (video)

Physical Scientist

Alan Zheng

Research Engineer

Robert Thompson (SPO) 

& Brian Renegar (PML)
Welcome Introductory Remarks

>1600 Registered 

from all 50 states + 

>50 other countries

Shyam Sunder

Acting Director, 

Special Programs Office

Robert Ramotowski

Forensic Sci. Program Manager, 

Special Programs Office

Research program (7 focus areas funded)

Standards program (OSAC community)

Foundation studies (4 reviews ongoing)
Statistics Focus Area

15 current research projects (foundational and applied) including

• New reference materials for trace elements in glass

• Uncertainty of drug mass measurements

• Optimization of GC/MS for fire debris analysis

• Statistical comparison of paint spectra

• Complex DNA mixture interpretation

• Characterization of noise in next generation sequencing data

• Use of next generation sequencing for DNA mixture analysis

• Assessment of thresholds for CE STR profiles

• Error rate assessment for firearms ID

• Likelihood ratios as weight of evidence

• Quantitative evaluation of footwear evidence

Will Guthrie

NIST Statistical 

Engineering Division

Overview of NIST 

Statistical Research 

in Forensic Science 
Statistical Research Projects 

Discussed Today

Nien-Fan Zhang

Steve Lund

Hari Iyer CMC RACs ROC LR

The NIST 

Footwear Impression

Comparison System

Statistical Models for Similarity 

Score Comparisons in Firearms

Evidence Identifications

A New Statistical Procedure to 

Assess Calibration Accuracy of

Likelihood Ratio Systems
CSAFE Overview

Alicia Carriquiry

(Iowa State)

• Funding available for 

internship, data collection, 

presentations, collaboration 

with forensic laboratories

• Offer periodic webinars 

(next one in December)

• Upcoming firearms 

workshop (Nov 30-Dec1)

• See their website 

https://forensicstats.org/

• They hope to hear from

you for collaboration! 
CSAFE Projects Discussed Today

Charless Fowlkes

(UC Irvine)

Brandon Garrett 

(Duke)

Heike Hofmann 

(Iowa State)

Camera 

not used

Challenge of lay people 

understanding the 

likelihood ratio

How to communicate 

effectively to triers of fact

Database in development 

of court decisions

See their website (https://forensicstats.org/) 

Footwear Impression

Analysis

Firearms and 

Toolmarks

Implementation and

Practice
Forensic Genetics Focus Area

NIST Applied Genetics Group: Advancing technology and 

traceability through quality genetic measurements to aid 

work in forensic and clinical genetics

Peter Vallone

NIST Applied 

Genetics Group
Katherine Gettings

https://strbase-b.nist.gov/

https://data.nist.gov/od/id/mds2-2157

Peter Vallone

Forensic Genetics Research 

Projects Discussed Today
Slide from Katherine Gettings (Forensics@NIST 2020)

NIST Forensic Genetics 

Research Efforts

Katherine Gettings
Firearms & Toolmarks Focus Area

Johannes Soons
Alan Zheng

Firearms and Toolmark Examination 

Research Projects Discussed Today

Reference Population 

Database of Firearm 

Toolmarks (RPDFT)

A Metrology Foundation 

for Firearm and Toolmark 

Examination 

Michael Stocker

Pre-recorded 

video shown

Digital Preservation of the 

President John F. Kennedy 

Assassination Ballistic Artifacts

Robert Thompson

Brian Renegar

https://www.nist.gov/blogs/takingmeasure/how-jfk-assassination-bulletswere-digitally-preserved-nist
Thank you for Attending (or Watching Later)!

• Tomorrow (November 6): 

• Digital & Identification Evidence

• Trace Evidence

• Drugs & Toxins

• Biometrics Human Examiner

• Communication

• Collaboration

RESEARCH. STANDARDS. FOUNDATIONS.

www.nist.gov/forensics

john.butler@nist.gov