Forensic Anthropology

Affiliate:  Anthony B. Falsetti  Ph.D.

Dr. Falsetti is a Board Certified Forensic Anthropologist with a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology. Dr. Falsetti has over 25 years of forensic analysis experience, laboratory management, and research and education practice.

Anthony B. Falsetti received his formal education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his doctorate was awarded in 1989. After graduation, Dr. Falsetti was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the State University of New York, Stony Brook from 1990 to 1992.

He also served as Lead Forensic Anthropologist for the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ) funded National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons group (NamUS.gov) and was the Dean at the CSI Academy of Florida in Alachua, Florida.  In 2010 and 2011 he served as Deputy Director in the Forensic Sciences Department, at the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) where he supervised the mortuary and field activities of Anthropology and Archaeology Division, in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. At the University of Florida, he was the Director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory and Co-Director of the William R. Maples Center for Forensic Medicine, and served as a professor in the Department of Anthropology from July 1996 to May of 2009. During his tenure at the University of Florida, he supervised NIJ sponsored research in forensic anthropology, developed with colleagues the State of Florida’s disaster mortuary response program (FEMORS), and was the project manager and designer of the new state of the art forensic anthropology laboratory at the University of Florida.

Dr. Falsetti is a Diplomat of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. He was the 2000-2001 Chairman of the Physical Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and further served for ten years on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Forensic Sciences. 

Dr. Falsetti has worked on several major mass fatality incidents including the Oklahoma City Bombing, the crash of TWA Flight 800, World Trade Center (WTC), the Thailand Tsunami Victim Identification Center in Phuket, Thailand, and most recently in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquakes. Anthony has worked on many noted historical cases including the search, recovery, and identification of the missing children of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia and the identification of Samuel Washington, brother of the 1st American President. He has lectured widely in the USA and abroad to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, and to the general public.  Dr. Falsetti has served as a Forensic Anthropology Consultant to the New York State Police Forensic Sciences Unit and as a Forensic Advisor for the DOJ-ICITAP Program in Bogota, Colombia. His forensic experience has covered numerous criminal and civil cases involving issues concerning the mechanism of traumatic injury (anthropology perspective), positive identification of individuals, and forensic laboratory procedures including issues concerning standards of practice or ‘best practices’. He has testified in multiple states and the Supreme Court of the Bahamas.

EXPERT WITNESS/ANALYSIS

  • Post-Mortem Interval (time since death)
  • Injury Evaluation (type of injury)
  • Injury Evaluation (mechanism of injury)
  • Determination of Sex
  • Determination of Age
  • Determination of Ancestry (race)
  • Determination of Stature
  • Human vs. Non-Human Analysis
  • Cremains Analysis
  • Forensic Laboratory Policies & Procedures
  • Crime Scene Recovery and Documentation Procedures
  • Positive Identification of Human Remains
  • Recovery of Human Remains (including surface and buried remains)
  • Exhumations
  • Video and Photo Analysis (human identification or verification)
  • Human Anatomy
  • Biological Anthropology
  • Bone Structure
  • Bone aging/density (evaluation of age in the living)

Many civil and criminal cases require a team approach and Dr. Falsetti’s contribution in conjunction with Dr. Iliescu (Medical Pathology) and Dr. Hannon (Forensic Biomechanics) provide the best possible service in addressing complex cases.