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State's top cop visits campus
for Crime Lab ceremony

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By Shirley Melikian Armbruster

Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined

California State University, Fresno

President John D. Welty on April 29 for a symbolic "Cornerstone Ceremony" at the new California Department of Justice forensic laboratory under construction on the campus.

The state-funded lab - the only one of the state's 12 crime labs to sit on a university campus - will serve law enforcement agencies in Fresno, Inyo, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono and Tulare counties.

Lockyer said the new lab, when completed in December, will create "an extraordinary team of teaching and law enforcement" as crime lab scientists work with Fresno State students

and faculty.

The new 36,000-square-foot facility will replace two existing smaller offices and employ 38 scientists and staff. A special teaching laboratory is included in the building and students will have the opportunity to serve internships and work on special projects.

"Our students will have the opportunity to see how sciences are applied, and they may be encouraged to pursue careers in this area," said Welty.

Dr. K.P. Wong, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, said Fresno State has a long-standing and productive collaboration with the existing state crime lab.

"More than 20 percent of all Department of Justice forensic scientists are Fresno State graduates" with bachelor's or master's degrees, said Wong.

Welty and Wong also noted that the new crime lab is the second piece of a planned science complex, following the Downing Planetarium.

A new science classroom building is planned and other science-related programs could be part of the complex.

"When completed, it will be a $100 million complex devoted to the sciences," said Welty.

Lockyer said the need to replace the Fresno lab and other crime labs in the state has been apparent for years. "Central Valley residents and law enforcement deserve the best," he said. "Once it's built, this new laboratory will have the staffing and latest technology necessary to help local law enforcement throughout the Central Valley investigate and solve crimes faster and better than ever before.

"I am excited that it will also be a teaching laboratory that will train future generations of criminal forensic scientists," Lockyer said.

Back to University Journal, 05/20/02 Issue