Day 2 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 2...
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.
Forensics@NIST 2020 Day 2 “Index”

Welcome Digital Evidence Trace Evidence Drugs & Toxins Biometrics

Software and Systems Division, 

Information Tech. Laboratory

Special Programs Office

Jonathan Phillips

Facial Identification, ITL

Barbara Guttman

Group Leader, ITL

Doug White

ITL

Jim Lyle

ITL

Jenise Reyes Rodriguez

ITL

Rik Ayers & Mehdi Shahid

ITL

Material Measurement Laboratory 

& Engineering Laboratory

Multiple Divisions, 

Material Measurement Laboratory

Robert Ramotowski

Forensic Sci. Program Manager, 

Special Programs Office

Information Access Division,

Information Tech. Laboratory

Jane Zhang & 

Meghan Burke MML

Megan Harries

MML (Boulder)

Nick Sharp

MML

Ruthie Corzo

MML

Stephanie Watson

EL

Thomas Forbes

MML

Nicholas Ritchie

MML

Matthew Staymates

MML

Ed Sisco

MML

Arun Moorthy

MML

Aaron Urbas

MML

Melissa Phillips & Brent Wilson

MML

Wrap-Up

John Butler

Special Programs Office
Welcome Remarks in Opening Day 2

Robert Ramotowski

Forensic Sci. Program Manager, 

Special Programs Office

The number of registrants grew even after our meeting started
Digital Evidence Focus Area

Barbara Guttman

Focus Area Lead, ITL
Digital Evidence Research 

Projects Discussed Today

Barbara Guttman Doug White Jim Lyle Jenise Reyes 

Rodriguez

Rick Ayers & 

Mehdi Shahid

Not 

pictured

Federated 

Testing

Black Box Study Underway
Trace Evidence Focus Area

Marcela Najarro

Focus Area Lead, MML
Trace Evidence Research 

Projects Discussed Today

Zheng “Jane” 

Zhang MML

Megan Harries

MML (Boulder)

Nick Sharp

MML

Ruthie Corzo

MML

Stephanie Watson

EL

Thomas Forbes

MML

Nicholas Ritchie

MML

Types of Trace Evidence

• Hair

• Vapor sampling

• Glass analysis

• Paint

• Explosives, trace-levels

• GSR (inorganic gunshot residue)

Instrumentation

• Mass spectrometry

• Neutron Activation Analysis

• LA-ICP-MS

• FTIR

• Thermal desorption-ambient MS

• Electron microscopy

Meghan Burke

MML

Not 

pictured
Most Active Q&A Session: Trace Evidence 

Stephanie 

Watson
Drugs & Toxins Focus Area

Ed Sisco

Moderator, MML
Drugs & Toxins Research 

Projects Discussed Today

Matt Staymates

Ed Sisco

Arun Moorthy

Aaron Urbas

Brent Wilson DART-MS

NMR

GC-MS

LC-MS
Matt Staymates (MML)
Biometrics Research Focus Area

Jonathan Phillips

Facial Recognition
Thank you for coming to 

Forensics@NIST 2020!

• Thanks again to Corrine Lloyd, NIST A/V Team, and Conference Services!

• >1700 registrants from all 50 U.S. states and >50 countries

• 40 different speakers and moderators across 2 days

• We have heard from the current seven forensic science focus areas

funded by the NIST Special Programs Office (with additional support from 

NIJ, FBI, and other funding sources)

• Hundreds of slides providing information on cutting edge research at NIST and

CSAFE (the NIST Center of Excellence in Forensic Statistics)

• Presentation videos and slides will be made available on the NIST website within the next

few weeks – we invite you to go back and watch or re-watch talks...

• Workshops next Monday and Tuesday

• We invite you to reach out for potential collaborations!