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CSI meets Tanzania in upcoming STEM lecture

Biological sciences professor Ruth Ballard will discuss her work in helping the Tanzanian government develop DNA testing capabilities to help solve crimes and settle paternity issues when Sacramento State kicks off its annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lecture series at 7 p.m., Sept. 23, in the University Union’s Redwood Room.

Since 2001, Ballard has traveled to Africa to help the Tanzanian government establish DNA testing capability. She and her students traveled throughout the country randomly collecting samples from more than 1,000 people from about 200 different tribes.

“We called them saliva safaris,” she says, “The least invasive way to get DNA is to have people you are collecting samples from spit into a tube.”

The database Ballard established for the country was published earlier this year in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. She has also been contacted by the Kenyan government to help establish a similar program there and will be traveling to Kenya later this year.

“The science of forensic biology took a huge leap forward in the late 1990s when it finally became possible to positively identify the perpetrator of a crime just from DNA evidence,” Ballard says. “Before then, testing was much less precise and could only be used in combination with other evidence, such as eye-witness reports and fingerprints, to convict a suspect.”

Ballard is also a lecturer for the California Department of Justice’s Criminalistics Institute. The institute trains new forensic scientists and helps existing scientists keep abreast of new trends and discoveries. Ballard also consults with attorneys, helping them understand and interpret DNA evidence as it relates to their cases, and testifies in trials locally, nationally and internationally.

STEM sponsors four lectures each academic year. The next lecture is Nov 18. The topic will be announced at a later date. All lectures are held on campus and are free.