Mechthild Prinz

A DNA expert with many years of criminal casework experience, Dr. Prinz is now an Associate Professor for Forensic Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Prior to this appointment she was serving as the Director of the Department of Forensic Biology of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in New York. In 2001, when the OCME was tasked with the examination and identification of all victims’ remains following the World Trade Center terrorist attack, she was one of the Assistant Directors in Forensic Biology. Her role during the identification effort was inside the laboratory as the validation and in-house testing supervisor, as well as outside the department through her participation in the selection and quality monitoring of contract laboratories. Due to the specific nature of the World Trade Center mass fatality, DNA was the primary mode of identification. At John Jay College of Criminal Justice Dr. Prinz is educating a new generation of forensic scientists in all aspects of forensic genetics and its intersection with crime scene processing and disaster victim identification.