Past Events

18^th International Symposium on Human Identification: HITA/AABB Workshop

Representatives from paternity testing laboratories, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and immigration law discussed the current issues surrounding DNA testing associated with immigrants. More information on what was discussed on the 2007 Symposium Page.

HITA Board Meeting February 2007

The HITA board meeting was held during the American Academy of Forensic Sciences 59th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, on February 22.

17th International Symposium on Human Identification

The 17th International Symposium on Human Identification, sponsored by Promega Corporation, was held October 9-12, 2006, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee. As part of this symposium, the HITA Workshop entitled, "Mass Fatalities—More Than Meets the Eye" was held. Downloadable PDFs of presentations from this workshop are available on the 2006 Workshop page.

HITA Meeting February 2006

On February 23, HITA members convened in Seattle for the organization’s annual meeting. The meeting started with the presentation of the Treasurer’s report. Afterward, the members covered old business, including Promega Corporation’s 16th International Symposium on Human Identification, at which HITA co-sponsored a workshop with the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB).

New business for the year comprise membership dues, member recruitment, the development of the HITA website, and the workshop to be co-sponsored by HITA and the AABB at the upcoming 17th International Symposium on Human Identification.

16th International Symposium on Human Identification

In late September, 2005, Promega Corporation sponsored the 16th International Symposium on Human Identification in Grapevine, Texas. Throughout the conference, members of the forensic community shared information about the latest DNA technologies and other advancements in the human identification testing industry.

On Friday, September 30, HITA and the AABB co-sponsored a workshop called “Accommodating the Demands of Increasing Volume: A Workshop for Public and Private DNA Profiling Laboratories.” The workshop was co-chaired by Dr. Michael Baird of DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC) and Dr. Amanda Sozer of DNA Technology Consulting Services, LLC.

The workshop speakers and the topics they covered were:

Dr. Michael Baird, DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC)—“ASCLD/LAB International Accreditation”
Dr. Bob Shaler, Pennsylvania State University—“Generating Trained and Competent Personnel to Staff Growing Laboratories”
Dr. Chris Maguire, Forensic Science Services—“Reducing Turnaround Time: Setting Reasonable Goals and Expectations”
Dr. Amanda Sozer, DNA Technology Consulting Services, LLC—“Scalability: Preparing the DNA Laboratory for a Mass Fatality Incident”
Dr. Steve Sherry, National Center for Biotechnology and Information—“Implementing Quality Assessment Tools for High-Volume Profile Review”
Dr. John Butler, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—“Standardizing Mixture Interpretation: An Open Discussion”
Dr. Charles Brenner, DNA-VIEW—“Relationship Calculations in Unusual Cases”