10/26/99

Editors: A photo of Virginia Maxwell is available at: http://cscwww.cats.ohiou.edu/news/pix/MAXWELL.JPG.

ATHENS, Ohio --A national expert on forensics and crime solving will kick off Ohio University's Frontiers in Science lecture series at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on the Athens campus.

Virginia Maxwell, criminalist with the Connecticut State Police Forensic Laboratory, will speak on forensic science and crime solving in a lecture called "Case Closed."

Maxwell earned a doctorate in chemistry from Oxford University in England and completed fellowships at the Royal Military College of Canada and Yale University of Medicine before joining the forensic laboratory in 1993.

An expert in forensic microscopy, bloodstain pattern analysis and crime scene reconstruction, Maxwell supervises collection of evidence at crime scenes, serves as an expert witness, lectures to police and analyzes evidence in the lab.

Richard Polen, coordinator of the Frontiers in Science lecture series, said forensic science is a topic on everyone's minds.

"The topic is interesting and exciting, and it is a hot topic in today's news," Polen said. "DNA and forensic medicine is going to be something that appeals to everyone and she is certainly an expert."

A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Frontiers in Science lecture series brings internationally known scientists to campus to promote communication and understanding between scientists and non-scientists. The series was established in 1991 by Jeanette Grasselli Brown, an Ohio University graduate and former university trustee, and her husband, Glenn R. Brown, through a contribution to the Ohio University Foundation.