The extensive recruitment of experienced specialists from FBI to UCO Forensic Program continues this semester. After starting a new era for the department since fall, Dr. Dwight Adams, director of the forensic program and new retired agent from the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, will be boosting the quality of UCO education.
Last Friday marked the beginning of Dr. Thomas Jourdan as the new assistant director of the UCO Forensic Institute.
After 20 years in the field as a special agent working in collecting and analysis of evidence and expert-witness testimony, Dr Jourdan will also contribute to the chemistry department by teaching nuclear chemistry this semester.
"It was a smooth enough transition for me. Adams was my boss for a number of years and he will continue to be and that is fine with me," Dr. Jourdan said.
Originally from California, the new assistant director received his doctorate in Chemistry from University of California in 1986, and started as a special agent in Washington D.C.
Cheryl Frech, chair of the chemistry department, said after extensive research and numerous interviews, Dr. Jourdan was the best person for the position they were trying to fill.
"He is going to participate on a limited basis and we are going to give him different classes each semester," she said.
"The reason to have my foot in two departments is because when you talk to people in on academic setting and you mention forensic science to people that are in the pure discipline, such as chemistry, it is like a step child. Forensic draws from many sciences," Jourdan said.
He believes when specialists are discussing collected evidence matter with prosecutorial or law enforcement, it is important to emphasize the forensic background as authority.
"We were looking for a faculty position with a good mix of experience from FBI or other agencies as well as academic," stated Dr. Adams as the main reason for hiring his long term former employee from the Virginia lab.
"He has tremendous skills and experiences with working with international terrorist cases," Adams said.
Jourdan participated in the collection of forensic evidence at the World Trade Center in 1993 and expert testimony in both the World Trade Center bombing trials and the Oklahoma City bombing crime scene and search sites. He also worked with Scottish Police during the Pan Am 103 bombing cases, when a Libyan terrorist kidnapped and destroyed an airplane.
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