MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education founding director Hugh Berryman will be a guest speaker at the annual lectureship co-named in his honor, alongside current director Tom Holland.

The William Bass-Hugh Berryman Legends in Forensic Science Lectureship is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in the MTSU Student Union Ballroom on campus. It is free and open to the public.

“Dead Bodies and Blunt Force Trauma: What Forensic Anthropologists Talk About Over Dinner” will be the topic of discussion between Berryman and Holland, internationally known forensics experts who plan to recount some of their most perplexing investigations.

“Getting to talk about cases is a great source of therapy,” said Holland, who previously served as scientific director of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command’s Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, before taking the helm at FIRE in 2019.“Forensic anthropology can be the most exciting profession, and the most emotionally draining. Dealing with human remains can take a toll.”

Holland said every forensic scientist has cases that haunt them: the young female who was a victim of the events on 9/11, and the widow from Vietnam whose husband was identified by a lock of his baby hair.

“Maybe anthropologists, because we deal with the actual remains of humans, feel it more than some,” he said. “Every case we work is a person, and every person has a story. Anthropologists are lucky enough to get to interpret those stories.”

Prior to onboarding at MTSU, Holland was instrumental in the identification of U.S. military personnel from past conflicts, including more than 1,600 soldiers from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Vietnam War, including the Vietnam Unknown Soldier from Arlington National Cemetery.

Berryman, who founded FIRE at MTSU in 2006, is an award-winning forensic expert in blunt force trauma and skeletal remains. He is known for his study of the Kennewick Man, one of North America’s oldest and most complete skeletal remains, and the investigation of the death of legendary explorer Meriwether Lewis. 

In addition to storytelling, Berryman and Holland will take questions from the audience.

“Forensic anthropology is the most rewarding job I can think of,” Holland said. “Not only do you get to solve some of the most complex jigsaw puzzles ever devised — like identifying the Unknown Soldier from Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C. — but at the end of the day, there’s so much emotional satisfaction by bringing answers to a family.”

The lecture will be held in the second-floor ballroom in the Student Union Building, located at 1768 MTSU Blvd. Parking is free for the evening event. A searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap.  

Call 615-494-7713 or visit https://fire.mtsu.edu/ to learn more about MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education, or FIRE, which is housed in Room 106 of Wiser-Patten Science Hall, 422 Old Main Circle on campus. — Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)