Forensic anthropologist Bradley Adams has fit thousands of fragile clues together to solve hundreds of puzzling deaths for New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner since he joined the department in 2004.

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Adams, the fall 2018 guest of MTSU’s William M. Bass Legends in Forensic Science Lectureship series, and his Forensic Anthropology Unit investigate every suspicious or unusual death in the city’s five boroughs, determining whether the person died from criminal violence, accident, suicide or some other unnatural cause and, if so, how.

He’ll elaborate on their methods next Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the university’s Student Union Ballroom, Room 250. A campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking.

MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education, also known as FIRE, is presenting Adams’ free public talk, “The Role of Forensic Anthropology at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner.”

Adams did his graduate studies at the University of Tennessee with Dr. Bill Bass, the internationally renowned forensic anthropologist for whom the MTSU lecture series is named.

From 1997 to 2004, he served as laboratory manager for the world’s largest skeletal identification facility, the Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, directing large-scale recovery and identification efforts of missing U.S. military personnel across the globe.

In his current role, Adams and his team are integral in the ongoing recovery and identification work related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

He’s also the author of “Commingled Human Remains: Methods in Recovery, Analysis and Identification” and will present an interactive workshop on the topic on Wednesday, Oct. 10, on campus in the SunTrust Room of MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building.

MTSU’s FIRE, established in 2006, brings forensic science experts to the MTSU campus each fall and spring for the Bass lecture series. It also provides regular educational and training opportunities for law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, attorneys, social workers, and other groups in forensic science and homeland security.

For more information on Adams’ lecture, his next-day workshop and other FIRE programs and events, contact the FIRE offices at 615-494-7713 or visit www.csimtsu.com.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)