-
Mathieu Orfila (Mahón, Spain)
*Father of Forensic Technology. (1814)
* First treatise on detection of poisons and their effects on animals.
* In April, 1813 he was delivering a lecture on arsenic poisoning to his students and demonstrating a supposedly-infallible test to discover arsenic. The test failed despite having been properly performed and Orfila, like any academic shown up in front students, was both outraged and embarrassed. But it also made him curious.... -
Francis Galton (Birmingham, United Kingdom)
- First statistical proof supporting the uniqueness of fingerprints. (1892)
- He devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science.
- In a Royal Institution paper in 1888 and three books (Finger Prints, 1892; Decipherment of Blurred Finger Prints, 1893; and Fingerprint Directories, 1895),[45] Galton estimated the probability of two persons having the same fingerprint and studied the heritability and racial differences in fingerprints.
-
Hans Gross (Graz, Austria)
- Father of Criminalistics (1893)
- First treatise describing the application of science to the field of criminal investigation.
- The release of his handbook for Magistrates, police officials, military policemen in 1893, is marked as the birth of the field of criminalistics. The work combined in one system fields of knowledge that had not been previously integrated, such as psychology and science, and which could be successfully used against crime.
-
Alphonse Bertilon (Paris, France)
- Father of Criminal Identification (1879) *Developed the science of Anthropometry—the taking of body measurements as a means of distinguishing people.
- The Will and William West Case
-
Albert S. Osborn (Sharon, MI)
- Developed the fundamentals of document examination. (1910)
- the father of the science of questioned document examination in North America.
-
Edmond Locard ( Saint-Chamond, Loire, France)
- Father of Forensic Science (1910)
- Developed the idea of cross-transfer of evidence.
- He formulated the basic principle of forensic science: "Every contact leaves a trace". This became known as Locard's Exchange Principle.
-
Leon Lattes ( Turin, Italy)
*Developed a procedure to ID blood groups from dried bloodstains.(1915)
* In 1901, he published a paper describing the modern method of categorizing blood groups. By 1915, he had successfully developed a method, the antibody test, for assigning samples to each of the major blood types. -
Calvin Goddard ( Baltimore, Maryland)
- Refined the techniques of bullet ID with the comparison microscope. (1825)
- Calvin Goddard brought professionalism, the use of the scientific method, and reliability to Forensic Firearm Identification, at a time when charlatanism was rampant in this field.
-
Walter McCrone (Wilmington, Delaware)
- Perfected the use of the microscope in forensic investigation.
- He is credited with expanding the usefulness of the microscope to chemists, who had previously considered it to be primarily a tool for the biologist.