CSI Victoria? Real criminalist coming to UHV
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| Irma Rios |
Her visit is part of Café Scientifique Victoria, an ongoing series of open discussions during which the public is encouraged to participate as a way of making science more open to the masses. Affiliated gatherings are held in London, Paris and Boston, among other cities. The Victoria branch was started as a cooperative effort between UHV and The Victoria College science faculty.
Also joining in the discussion will be Victoria defense attorney Elliott Costas, who will talk about how the defense views the work done by Rios and her associates. Costas has practiced criminal law for 26 years.
So what is it really like to work in a crime lab?
“It’s a lot more fun than what you see on TV,” Rios said. “It’s dealing with individuals’ lives, and you get a lot of satisfaction with solving a case.”
On any given day, Rios and her staff may be called upon to identify narcotics from a drug bust or fluids from the scene of a murder. Her staff also works to match bullets from a crime scene to a particular gun and finds out exactly how many drinks that DWI suspect really had.
Modern crime shows have given the public a better idea of how things work in her world, but there are still a number of misconceptions, Rios said, many of them coming from DNA testing.
“They think that the results can be obtained right away in 30 minutes,” she said. “It takes days for the testing to be conducted.”
The lab also doesn’t perform exhaustive tests on every piece of evidence recovered, she said. Once criminalists can place a suspect at a scene with one piece of evidence, it is a waste of time to perform many other tests to establish the same fact.
Rios’ trip to Victoria will include a guest lecture in the Forensic Biology graduate class taught by Richard Gunasekera, who leads the UHV Forensic Science program.
“This is a wonderful chance for the public to see into the real world of forensics,” Gunasekera said. “Everyone is invited to stay around for the class lecture, if they wish.”
The visit will be a special thrill for his students, he said, who first met Rios on a field trip last month to the Houston crime lab.
“These graduate students and other interested students will really benefit from getting to speak with someone who spends every day doing what they are training to do,” Gunasekera said.
Past guest lecturers have included Victoria Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor, law makers and defense attorneys. The class is the flagship course in the Forensic Science graduate program.
The events on Thursday are free to the public, and light refreshments will be served.
To RSVP or for more information, contact Christy Edwards at (361) 570-4216 or edwardsml@uhv.edu.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
