Albert (Buzz) Scherr, professor of law at Franklin Pierce Law Center  and nationally-recognized authority on forensic DNA evidence, will speak at Westminster College Tuesday, March 15, at 5 p.m. in Phillips Lecture Hall of the Hoyt Science Resources Center.

His presentation, "Do You Know Where Your DNA Is?" will focus on privacy of DNA.  He will answer questions such as: Have our conventional notions of privacy kept pace with recent advances in the field of biotechnology?; who has access to this personal information?; who should have access to this personal information?; and what can the Constitution do about this?

In 1992 Scherr was the trial and appellate counsel in a homicide case, State v. Vendebogart, that resulted in one of the few state Supreme Courts to find forensic DNA evidence inadmissible (pending further technological developments).

As a law professor, he teaches courses in criminal procedure and evidence, expert witnesses and scientific evidence, genetics and the law and trial advocacy.  He also directs the Trial Advocacy Program and the Intellectual Property Litigation Program.  He co-designed and taught a national model, NIH-funded Summer Faculty Institute at Dartmouth that educates undergraduate faculty on ethical and social issues of the Human Genome Project.

The event is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Dr. Joshua Corrette-Bennett, assistant professor of biology at Westminster College, at (724) 946-7208 or e-mail bennetjc@westminster.edu.

Albert (Buzz) Scherr