Published: February 27, 2006 03:04 pm      

UCO hires crime lab director

A former Edmond resident who is the current director of the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Va., has been named the director of the University of Central Oklahoma’s new Forensic Science Institute.

The announcement was made Monday morning during a news conference on the UCO campus.

Dwight Adams, who received his bachelor’s degree in biology form UCO in 1977, has guided the FBI lab in Quantico since 2002.

He will assume his new post effective July 1.

Adams said while some Washington colleagues questioned his decision to come to Oklahoma, for him, the reason is crystal clear.

“Edmond is my hometown,” Adams said. “I am pleased that I will be able to return to my hometown and give back to ... a community responsible for providing me most of my public education.”

Adams said he vividly remembers taking his first biology class at UCO. The class sparked an interest in him in science, he said.

UCO encouraged him to make a difference in the world through science, he said.

“Little did UCO or I know that we would make a difference in the fight against terrorism in some of the most important criminal investigations the world has ever known,” Adams said.

They include analyzing terrorist bombs called improvised expolsive devices (IEDs) which have caused numerous American and coalition casulaties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Drawing linkages between terrorist devices and their makers can add information to a case that could keep the next bomb from going off, Adams said.

Adams also was an innovator in the field of DNA research

Prior to the creation of the FBI’s DNA unit, he served on the agency’s research team which developed and validated DNA-testing procedures. He also was the first FBI agent to testify in court on DNA analysis and has done so more than 130 times for both the prosecution and defense.