Throughout the Midwest, crime laboratories must deal with a growing number of cases that require extensive time and resources to get the most accurate information in the shortest amount of time.

With this time shortage, it can be difficult for law enforcement officers and criminologists to develop new technology and train personnel to the fullest extent.

There is a solution to this shortage in the Midwest, and that solution is here in Ames.

The Midwest Forensics Research Center is a joint venture between the U.S. Department of Energy, the Ames Laboratory and the ISU Institute for Physical Research and Technology. The research center will provide service to Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Todd Zdorkowski, Ames Laboratory Coordinator of the Office of Research and Technology Applications, said the center will serve four main functions.

The center aims to develop professional training in forensics for criminalists and law enforcement officers, he said. Providing short-term case work assistance to state crime labs and helping in the establishment of university education in the forensic sciences also are goals of the lab. The final function is to perform research to yield new twists on established forensic analyses and to develop revolutionary new forensic methods, Zdorkowski said.

“There are no other centers like this in the world,” said David Baldwin, director of the Environmental and Protection Sciences Program at Ames Laboratory. “It’s a grassroots organization to provide access to resources, equipment and training that are not available elsewhere.”

Although the center is in early stages of development, the project has seen early success. The Ames Laboratory forensics team and its regional partners are seeking long-term funding sources for the center, Zdorkowski said.

The team received $44,000 from the ISU Institute for Physical Research and Technology to begin plans for the center. The team also has requested funding from the Department of Energy, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“They hope that ISU students will have the opportunity to learn forensics science here and have the opportunity to practice these skills in the wider community of forensics professionals,” Zdorkowski said.

The ISU chemistry faculty are discussing the possibility of establishing undergraduate and graduate programs in the forensic sciences. A criminology minor already is offered in the sociology department, and courses in biotechnology, toxicology, anthropology and psychology could be combined to produce a very advanced program of study, Zdorkowski said.

Departments in engineering and liberal arts and sciences, as well as campus research centers, also are taking part in the development of the center, he said.

The research center likely will look to various university departments, the research centers on campus and parts of the Ames Laboratory for use by interested researchers and professors to meet the four goals set forth by the center, Baldwin said.

The physical research and technology institute and Ames Laboratory already have established a partnership with Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau to fulfill its goals, Zdorkowski said. Southeast Missouri State offers an undergraduate forensic science degree and houses a regional crime laboratory on campus. The ISU forensic team also is looking for partnerships with other universities in the eight-state region, he said.

“The project team hopes that the resource center will grow, and that the Midwest will enjoy the full potential of this project,” Zdorkowski said.