On: Thursday, May 25 from 5:30-9:30pm

At: Eli’s on Whitney – 2392 Whitney Avenue Hamden, CT 06518

Please RSVP by May 18, 2023

Dr. Brooke Kammrath

Tuesday May 25th, 5:30pm at Eli’s in Hamden, CT.

5:30-6:00pm - Registration
6:00-7:00pm - Dinner
7:00-8:00pm - Talk
8:00-9:00pm - Awards

“Better Justice with Portable Spectrometers”

Advancements in the miniaturization of instrumentation are carrying spectroscopy beyond the laboratory to deliver analytical capabilities directly to the sample. Meaningful societal implications have resulted from the development of varied applications of portable spectroscopy and spectrometry in diverse industries including, but not limited to chemical, cultural heritage, food science, geology, archaeology, hazardous materials response, military, and forensic science.  Although not their primary purpose, portable spectrometers are tools with important implications for the promotion of social justice through rapid, reliable and objective science. Portable spectrometers provide swift access to better science thus providing a tool for realizing the goal of social justice to reduce human suffering through equality and justice. Whether it be through providing more reliable and objective real-time information regarding the identification of a suspected illicit drug sample than currently employed colorimetric field tests, or ensuring equal access to verified medicines through effective counterfeit pharmaceutical detection operations, portable spectrometers are proving to be valuable tools in the fight for equality and justice. This presentation will highlight applications of portable spectroscopy and spectrometry in the field detection of illicit and counterfeit drugs which have notable effects on the delivery of improved criminal and social justice.
Brooke W. Kammrath, Ph.D., ABC-GKE is a Professor of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven and the Assistant Director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science. She teaches a range of both undergraduate and graduate forensic science courses and has a varied research agenda that includes the uniting of microscopy with spectroscopy, applications of field portable instrumentation, the identification and characterization of microscopic samples of forensic interest, the statistical analysis of trace, pattern and impression evidence, and investigations into the significance of physical evidence.  Additionally, she works as a consulting criminalist, where she is a qualified expert in both state and federal courts. She is a member of several professional organizations, and is the past-president of the New York Microscopical Society (NYMS), and on the Governing Boards of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) and the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS). Dr. Kammrath also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Dr. Kammrath is the co-editor of the two-volume book Portable Spectroscopy and Spectrometry and the co-author of the book Blood Traces. She has also co-authored 2 laboratory manuals, 8 book chapters, 1 encyclopedia article, over 20 journal articles, and over 100 professional conference presentations.