Victor
W. Weedn is a visiting professor at Duquesne University, where
he teaches forensic science and law. He is a graduate of the University
of Texas, the Southwestern Medical School and the South Texas College of
Law.
After serving at the MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Dr. Weedn was recruited to help form the only federal medical examiner system in this country, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System. In that capacity, he developed the military's DNA identification system, including its lab (AFDIL) and repository of DNA specimens.
Dr. Weedn’s lab performed testing on Czar Nicholas II, members of the Branch Davidians, the Unknown Soldier and victims of the 9/11 Pentagon and Pennsylvania airplane crashes. His lab was also the first to employ STR testing in casework and pioneered mtDNA testing. Dr. Weedn was the government sponsor for PCR-on-a-chip technology, which has become the next generation of bio-threat detection.
After nearly a decade, he left active military duty for the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences as a state medical examiner and director of the Birmingham Regional Crime Lab. Dr. Weedn left that system to become a principal research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was also director of Biotechnology and Health Initiatives. He left Carnegie Mellon in July 2004 to focus on forensic science.
