Affiliated Faculty

Donna C. Boyd, Ph.D. D-ABFA
Director, Forensic Science Instiute (RUFSI); Professor of Basic Science Education, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine; Eminent Professor of Anthropological Sciences, Radford University; Consultant, the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Western District. 

Boyd received a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in Biological Anthropology in 1988 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. In 2009, she was named a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists. She is a specialist in musculoskeletal anatomy and has conducted bioarchaeological research on human remains from prehistoric and historic archaeological sites as well as modern forensic cases for over 25 years. She is the author of over 100 publications and technical reports and has presented over 80 papers on human bone at professional conferences. As a board-certified forensic anthropologist, she has consulted for the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner-Western District (VOCME) as well as other medicolegal agencies on over 250 forensic death investigations.

Boyd is the recipient of numerous awards honoring her teaching and research, including the 1998 Donald N. Dedmon Professorial Excellence Award from the Radford University Foundation, the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (2006), and the United States CASE/Carnegie Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (2006), and served as a Dalton Eminent Scholar during the 2019-20 academic year. She recently served as chair of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) Academy Standards Board (ASB) Anthropology Consensus Body committee on Skeletal Trauma Analysis in Forensic Anthropology and is also a contributing member of the OSAC (Organization of Area Scientific Committees, Anthropology) Anthropology subcommittees on Professional Qualifications, Ethics, and Reporting. She is past secretary of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, current secretary of the AAFS Anthropology ASB, a Fellow of AAFS, and a member of the U. S. Dept. of Health and Human Service’s DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team), through which she was deployed to Haiti in February, 2010, to recover, analyze, and identify American and Haitian-American earthquake victims.

Boyd’s interests, training, and expertise are in bone biology, bone repair and skeletal trauma. Her current research is on the musculoskeletal signatures of differential health and mortality across historic and modern (forensic) populations. This includes a focus on macroscopic and microscopic skeletal indicators of antemortem and perimortem pediatric and elderly trauma, as well as biohistory and health disparities, including a focus on microevolutionary change in African-American health. She is currently under contract for her second edited volume, entitled Forensic Skeletal Trauma Analysis: Scientific Foundation and Professional Practice (Wiley -Liss Publishing, in Association with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Forensic Science in Focus Series).

Bruce Budowle, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Forensic Science Institute

Bruce Budowle received a PhD in Genetics in 1979 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. From 1979-1982, Dr. Budowle was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Working under a National Cancer Institute fellowship, he carried out research predominately on genetic risk factors for diseases such as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, melanoma, and acute lymphocytic leukemia.

From 1983-2009, Budowle worked at the FBI’s Laboratory Division to carry out research, development, and validation of methods for forensic biological analyses. Budowle has contributed to the fundamental sciences as they apply to forensic genetics/genomics in analytical development, population genetics, statistical interpretation of evidence, and in quality assurance. Budowle has worked on laying some of the foundations for the current statistical analyses in forensic genetics and defining the genetic parameters of relevant population groups. He has published more than 700 articles, made more than 800 presentations (many of which were as an invited speaker at national and international meetings), and testified in well over 300 criminal cases in the areas of molecular biology, population genetics, statistics, quality assurance, and forensic biology. In addition, he has authored or co-authored books on molecular biology techniques, electrophoresis, protein detection, forensic genetics, and microbial forensics.

Budowle has been directly involved in developing quality assurance (QA) standards for the forensic DNA field. He has been a chair and member of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Methods, Chair of the DNA Commission of the International Society of Forensic Genetics, and a member of the DNA Advisory Board. He was one of the original architects of the CODIS National DNA database, which maintains DNA profiles from convicted felons, from evidence in unsolved cases, and from missing persons. Budowle's efforts over the past two decades also have focused on counter-terrorism, specifically efforts involving microbial forensics and bioterrorism. Budowle was involved directly in the scientific aspects of the anthrax letters investigation. He was one of the architects of the field of microbial forensics. He has been the chair of the Scientific Working Group on Microbial Genetics and Forensics (hosted by the FBI), whose mission was to set QA guidelines, develop criteria for biologic and user databases, set criteria for a National Repository, and develop forensic genomic applications.

Budowle recently retired as Director of the Center for Human Identification and Regents Professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Texas where his efforts focused on the areas of human forensic identification, microbial forensics, and emerging infectious disease with substantial emphasis in genomics and next generation sequencing. He has been a Commissioner on the Texas Forensic Science Commission, a member or the Texas Governor's Sexual Assault Survivor's Task Force. He continues to research and work in the areas of forensic genomics and contributes to supporting humanitarian efforts via human identification.

Rhett Herman, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics

Herman received his Ph.D. in Physics from Montana State University, specializing in the field of semiclassical gravity. Soon after starting at Radford University he had the opportunity to switch his research focus to geophysics, with an emphasis on near-surface geophysics. In addition to his regular physics classes he teaches Geophysics, as well as a unique Arctic Geophysics Research Experience in which he mentors student-centered research and helps them microcontroller-based environmental sensor systems for deployment in northern Alaska. He has conducted geophysical site surveys for various buildings, including two of the academic buildings at Radford University, using electrical resistivity and seismic methods. He has worked extensively with ground penetrating radar (GPR) for various historical and archaeological investigations. He has conducted a number of GPR surveys for various law enforcement and other agencies and groups.

In Memoriam - C. Cliff Boyd, Jr., Ph. D., RPA

The RUFSI and the Department of Anthropological Sciences in the RU College of Science and Technology mourns the loss of long-time faculty member and RUFSI Co-Founder Cliff Boyd, who passed away on March 9, 2021. He had been at RU for over 35 years, serving as Co-Director of the Radford University Forensic Science Institute (RUFSI) for the past 12 years.

Boyd received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee and was a nationally renowned archaeologist. He was the author of three books and over 300 other professional publications on Eastern United States archaeology. Boyd's areas of research interests included southeastern archaeology, anthropological theory, Civil War battlefield archaeology, and forensic archaeology. He was a member of Radford University's Million Dollar Circle, having brought in more than 1 million dollars in external funding to Radford University through his archaeological research. This research resulted in seminal contributions to Virginia history and prehistory.

Boyd was passionate about teaching archaeology, particularly through field school experiences that he supervised nearly every summer. In 2008, he led an RU archaeological field school to Guadalcanal to search for remains of WWII soldiers from the Goettge Patrol.

He leaves a legacy of outstanding teaching as evidenced by the hundreds of students he influenced and trained, including many who have gone on to become professional archaeologists. His outstanding teaching, research, and service contributions have been recognized through numerous regional, state, and national awards, including Professional Archeologist of the Year (Archeological Society of Virginia, 1998), Foundation Award for Creative Scholarship (Radford University, 1999), Outstanding Faculty Award (State Council for Higher Education of Virginia, 2008) and the Ellis R. Kerley Foundation Outstanding Research Award (American Academy of Forensic Sciences, 2016). 

Boyd helped countless families locate and identify their loved ones and mitigate the circumstances of their death through his expertise in forensic archaeology. He consulted on over 200 forensic death investigation cases for the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and was well-known among regional, state, and national law enforcement entities (including the Virginia State Police and the FBI) for providing his assistance on some of their toughest cases. Boyd single-handedly trained thousands of law enforcement agents on proper search, excavation, and recovery of remains from covert graves and in 2015 was named an honorary member of the Virginia Forensic Science Academy.

Cliff Boyd is survived by his wife and three children, of whom he was most proud. He will be greatly missed.