Forensic Science

Ms. Elizabeth Ziolkowski, forensic scientist, Boston Police Department

GWIS event, Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at MIT  

Elizabeth Ziolkowski gave a fascinating presentation about her job as a trace evidence specialist with the Boston Police Department. Ms. Ziolkowski presented her background as a chemist who worked in industry in Germany and as a chemistry tutor in England and in Cambridge, MA. She received an M.S. in forensic science from Northeastern University and worked in the private sector before joining the Boston Police Department Crime Lab. In her experience, the majority of forensic scientists are women, although it is unclear why this is the case. The main exception is in ballistics, in which the majority of the workforce consists of retired police officers. Ms. Ziolkowski explained that her job is to "tell a story of what happened in a crime by the physical evidence." As a forensic scientist, it is important to understand that the attorneys involved don't have a scientific background, so some education is necessary. As part of the job, she also has to be able to interact with police, hospitals, and prisons. As a trace evidence specialist, she mainly uses several different microscopes and FTIR.

Ms. Ziolkowski ended her presentation with an interactive discussion of several cases she has worked on. Through these, she illustrated the important point that they are interested in class comparisons versus individual comparisons. For example, the glass came from this kind of window (class), versus the glass came from this particular window (individual). 

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