C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory
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The primary mission of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory is to provide forensic anthropology services for medical examiners and coroners. The laboratory also provides anthropological, legal and technical laboratory-based education and training to graduate students, and professionals in the fields of anthropology, medicine, medicolegal death investigation, and law enforcement. The laboratory and its faculty and graduate analysts serve as a resource for pathologists, scientists and technical experts practicing in communities and various jurisdictions in the state of Florida.
The history of the laboratory dates back to 1972, the year the laboratory’s founder, Dr. William R. Maples, consulted on his first forensic case. Maples conducted casework in the Florida Museum of Natural History until 1991, when the university received a generous endowment for a new forensic anthropology laboratory from C. Addison Pound, Jr., a generous benefactor of the University of Florida. The C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory was built on Radio Road on the UF campus and operated as an extension of the Florida Museum of Natural History. It is devoted solely to the practice of forensic anthropology. Dr. William R. Maples served as the laboratory's first director from 1991 until his death in February of 1997. During that time he was involved in the investigations of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of such notable figures as President Zachary Taylor, Francisco Pizzaro, the family of Czar Nicholas II, and civil rights advocate Medgar Evers. In 1996, the C. A. Pound Laboratory formally moved its administration to the Department of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Today the C. A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory performs analyses of skeletal remains for many of the 24 medical examiner districts in the State of Florida. Although most of the cases received at the laboratory originate from law enforcement agencies and medical examiners within the State of Florida, laboratory personnel, including graduate students, have been involved in numerous cases of national and international interest.
In June of 2006, the laboratory moved to new quarters in the Cancer and Genetics Research Complex on campus. The lab occupies 2400 sq. ft. with separate laboratory, graduate student and administrative offices. Service to the State of Florida and outside agencies continues to be the major focus of the laboratory, while interaction and coordination of graduate student education with members of the teaching faculty have increased dramatically. Graduate students work closely with Dr. Michael Warren, the laboratory’s program director, in all aspects of casework including the search and recovery of human remains, trauma analysis, and video superimposition techniques.
The C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory is an element of the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine at the University of Florida. The laboratory’s long association with other forensic professionals, both at the University of Florida and elsewhere, has aided its growth and success.
Click here to go to the homepage for the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory, or click here to contact a representative of the lab.
