On November 1, 2024, senior Nicole DeWald and Dr. Fabio Oldoni attended the Start Talking Science (STS) symposium at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia where DeWald presented her poster on “Exploring trace DNA dynamics in simulation physical aggression scenarios.” The STS Symposium is an event where STEM researchers can present their findings through poster presentations to the public. 

DeWald’s forensic biology research presentation explored the persistence and transfer of DNA between a mock “offender” and a mock “victim”. The results of this study have the potential to indicate whether there might be DNA on both the victim’s wrists and the offender’s hand palms in real physical aggression scenarios. This project contributes to the understanding of the transfer, persistence, prevalence, and recovery of DNA data in the field of forensic science and can be useful in addressing activity-level evaluative DNA evidence reporting.