Bill Bass
It wasn't until almost 10 years after taking a human osteology class (study of the human skeleton) for anthropologists and archaeologists, taught by a student of Bill Bass, that I ended up working in forensics. Years ago, when I was studying to be an archaeologist I used to questioned the sanity of fellow students that were looking to forensics as a career choice. The Midwest Bioarcheology & Forensic Anthropology Association meeting acronym said it all BARFA. I only wanted to work with really old bones, the beautifully bleached, not covered in flesh ones. The funny thing is that I think I'm the only one out of that group that actually got into the field, of forensics, that is. I think the only foot in the door I had was archaeological excavation experience and a good knowledge of the human skeleton and how to differentiate bone fragments into either human or non-human, which is pretty important every once in a while in my job. So much of my traini...