Biography

Bruce McCord is an Analytical and Forensic Chemistry Professor at Florida International University. Dr. McCord received a BS in Chemistry with honors from the College of William and Mary in 1981, and a Ph. D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. His research interests involve forensic genetics, toxicology, and explosives residue detection. He has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and book chapters, and his research has been supported by the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, TSWG, the Department of Homeland Security and various industrial concerns.He serves as deputy editor for the journal ELECTROPHORESIS and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Forensic Sciences and the Journal of Forensic Chemistry. He also is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Green Mountain DNA Conference and the Biological Methods subcommittee of the OSAC. In 2008 he was awarded the Paul Kirk Award of the Criminalistics Section of the AAFS.

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Research Interest

Analytical/Forensic Chemistry, Studies in the application of chromatographic techniques in the analytical and forensic sciences. Examples include the development of novel methods for DNA analysis using capillary electrophoresis (CE) with soluble polymers and laser-induced fluorescence. Other work involves applications of PCR and CE in the study of degraded DNA. In the area of toxicological analysis we use of microfluidic and other nanotechniques in the trace detection of drugs in biological fluids. We also have applied these tools for fundamental studies of DNA conductivity. Lastly, we utilize capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry in the analysis and detection of explosives residue.