Dr. Mark Barash

Dr. Mark Barash has been recently appointed an Assistant Professor at the San Jose State University (CA, USA) and holds an honorary academic position at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia). Mark has a wealth of international experience in the operational casework, academic teaching and research in forensic science and other disciplines.

Bio

Mark has received his PhD in Forensic Genetics from Bond University (Gold Coast, Australia), MSc. in Microbiology & Genetics and BSc. in Life Sciences, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Mark’s passion to forensic science began in 2001 when he had joined the Division of Identification and Forensic Science (DIFS) in the Israel Police, where he worked for almost 9 years as a forensic DNA officer in the rank of a Chief Inspector. During his Police career he had analysed biological evidence from over 600 criminal cases, including robberies, sexual assaults, homicides and terrorist attacks. He gained experience in virtually all types of the lab testing required for forensic DNA analysis, as well as expert reporting and court testimony.

In the last four years, Mark has been employed as a post-doctoral fellow at UTS, where he was involved in teaching various undergraduate and postgraduate subjects, graduate students’ supervision and cutting – edge multidisciplinary research.

Mark is actively collaborating with his Academic colleagues and Industry partners on national and international research projects, focusing on various aspects of forensic molecular phenotyping, craniofacial genetics, anthropology, secondary DNA transfer, evaluation of novel forensic DNA assays and biometrics. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications to date and presented his research in over 20 national and international conferences.

Summary

Dr. Barash’s area of expertise and research interests covers forensic DNA analysis, trace DNA evidence, secondary DNA transfer, DNA mixture analysis, forensic microbiology, Forensic Molecular Phenotyping (i.e. prediction of biogeographic ancestry, pigmentation, facial appearance and other externally visible characteristics from a DNA sample) and other topics.