Mark Barash
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Associate Professor
ORCID: 0000-0002-5445-6316 Keywords |
About Dr. Mark Barash
Dr. Barash is an enthusiastic advocate of forensic science and criminal justice with over 25 years of professional experience in the Forensic DNA field, including 10 years of operational experience as a DNA Reporting Police Officer in Israel Police. During his Police career, he contributed to hundreds of criminal investigations by analyzing biological evidence from armed robberies, sexual assaults, homicides, and terrorist attacks.
Dr. Barash's research interests span multidisciplinary areas such as craniofacial genetics, anthropology, biometrics, bioinformatics, machine learning, forensic genealogy, indirect DNA transfer, and applications of massively parallel sequencing. Mark's primary research focuses on building innovative forensic intelligence tools for the prediction of externally visible characteristics such as facial appearance and other visible traits of potential investigative value from a DNA sample.
Dr. Barash strongly believes in the importance of criminal justice principles, which led him to establish a forensic consulting company, “GATACA.” Via his company, he provides independent expert consulting in criminal and civil cases for private and legal enforcement customers, mostly pro bono.
Students who are interested in joining the lab should check the website for instructions and email Dr. Barash a short note outlining their interest along with an unofficial transcript and resume/CV. Students who are accepted must commit to a minimum of two semesters. Students can expect to spend between 8 and 12 hours per week on research activities such as lab maintenance, lab meetings, setting up experiments, data analysis, creating presentations, etc.
