[Vision2020] CSI: Moscow

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of "Today at Idaho" at

http://www.today.uidaho.edu/details.aspx?id=4706
 
------------------------------------------------------------

CSI: Moscow
Written by Ken Kingery 

MOSCOW, Idaho – Move over, Gil Grissom. CSI – or Crime Scene 
Investigators – has arrived in Moscow. But the characters aren’t part of a 
fictional television show, and they’re playing for keeps.

Taking center stage in this unscripted drama is a brand new gas 
chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC/MS) recently installed specifically 
for undergraduate teaching in the basement of Renfrew Hall. The machine 
that chemically analyzes drugs and poisons will support a new forensics 
degree in chemistry that began last semester at the University of Idaho.

“The GC/MS is pretty sophisticated,” said Ray von Wandruszka, professor of 
chemistry and department chair, and driving force behind the new 
program. “Even I can’t just walk in and operate this thing.”

-----------

Photo
http://www.today.uidaho.edu/photos/Rachel-HaileyWeb.jpg

-----------

The GC/MS takes a sample, vaporizes it and runs it through a 90-foot tube 
just wide enough to fit a dust particle. The journey causes the different 
components to separate before exiting the tube into an electric field 
created by a quadrupole magnet. Manipulating the electric field 
individually selects and detects the mass of the different components. The 
resulting mass spectrum is compared to a massive database, revealing the 
original compound’s identity.

According to von Wandruszka, determining a compound’s identity is one of 
the most important aspects of forensic science. When he asked Jason 
Stenzel, forensic scientist at Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory 
Division and Idaho alumnus, to identify the most important piece of 
equipment in a forensics lab, Stenzel immediately said a GC/MS. 

The forensics track at the university joins the three existing chemistry 
degrees: general, professional and pre-med. It takes a full set of 
chemistry courses, but adds classes in pertinent disciplines such as 
genetics, forensic geology, statistics, justice studies and criminal 
justice. Once completed, a student will have the basic knowledge required 
to become a forensic scientist. However, the degree is in chemistry – not 
forensics. Additional training would be required at a forensics laboratory 
to learn the finer points. This is a point of which von Wandruszka is 
proud. 

“Even if you decided that forensics isn’t for you after all, you would 
still have a very good chemistry degree and could work somewhere else,” 
said von Wandruszka. “You’re not putting all your eggs in one basket.”

If there is already a main character in the forensic program’s plot, 
Rachel Hailey is it. She will learn how to use the GC/MS next semester and 
become the resident expert to help teach those who follow her. A junior 
who switched from general chemistry into the new forensics program last 
fall, Hailey has wanted to be a CSI since junior high. 

“This is why I went into chemistry. I wanted it to be my foundation for 
going into forensics,” said Hailey. “I actually was upset when the show 
came out because I wanted to do it before it became popular!”

However, popularity is part of the reason the degree is being offered. A 
demand was recognized and von Wandruszka realized it could be met by 
simply shuffling existing classes into a new curriculum. The only 
expenditure was the GC/MS, which was funded by the Donald E. Roberts 
Educational Enhancement Endowment earmarked for improving chemistry 
infrastructure.

“We may just have chemistry students switching tracks internally,” said 
von Wandruszka. “But I think we also might get some extra people into 
chemistry who wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
 
------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapsed Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/