May 11, 2002

Microscopy and Terrorism
Skip Palenik, President and Senior Research Microscopist
Microtrace
Elgin, Illinois

Lecture & Tour

The analytical microscopist has a significant role to play in the war against terrorism. Most of these investigations are classified for obvious reasons and are not suitable for presentation to the public. Therefore, this lecture will focus on general principles, historical uses of microscopy in intelligence gathering and discuss three recent cases from our practice at Microtrace: The analysis of bomb fragments recovered from the bombing of an oil pipeline in Yemen; An "anthrax scare" in Ohio; and the dust from the World Trade Center Sneak Attack in New York City.

Bio Sketch
Skip received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago with emphasis on analytical methods. Thereafter he was a Senior Research Associate at McCrone Associates and he also taught courses at the McCrone Reasearch Institute in photomicrography, applied polarized light microscopy, identification of small particles, advanced crystallography and scanning electron microscopy, hair microscopy, species identification of paper fibers, paper fiber analysis, pollen identification, microscopy of soil minerals, cement microscopy, pharmacognosy, micro-techniques, wood identification, thin layer chromatography and vegetable fiber identification.

He is the founder and president of Microtrace (1992-present) and his expertise ranges from polarized light microscopy and microchemical methods to the identification of single particles. He researches new methods to aid in the identification of microscopic particles of minerals, industrial dusts, combustion products, botanical fragments, hairs, fibers and crystals; and the application of these methods to forensic science, contamination control and airborne particulate studies. Skip is also a court qualified expert (State, Federal and Foreign courts) in forensic microscopy and chemistry and has served as an Intelligence Analyst, United States Army Intelligence, Stuttgart, Federal Republic of Germany (1966 ?1969).

Time permitting, Skip enjoys collecting, reading and studying microscopical and microchemical antiquarian books and illuminated manuscripts.