Veronica Franklin (Bismarck, ND) began at WVU in the fall of 2017 to work on her Masters degree. She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA with her Bachelor of Arts in Biology and minors in Chemistry and Criminology in 2017. Veronica graduated with her Master of Science in Forensic Science in 2019 after completing her thesis: "Modeling Movement of Criminals through Burglary Scenes." Veronica continued her academic endeavors to work on her Doctor of Philosophy in Forensic Science in the fall of 2019. Her project for her dissertation is: "Subclass characteristics found on spent cartridge cases." Her dissertation is evaluating manufacturing and finishing methods similar to those used in firearm manufacturers and the production of subclass characteristics. Her project is also evaluating the consistency of firearm examiners identifying subclass characteristics and the development and validation of a convolutional neural network for subclass characteristics determination.
Why did you choose WVU?
I chose WVU, for my university of choice, for my Masters degree because the program was well established and the years of experience the faculty had was fascinating. The year I was looking at graduate programs, WVU had just started the PhD program which would give me the opportunity to continue my education if I wanted.
Why did you choose to work with Dr. Morris?
I chose to work with Dr. Morris because he was working with impression evidence and I was also open to doing any project he wanted to pursue. He allows his students to explore questions they are curious about and leads an independent research culture.