At Keuka College they call him “DNA Dave.” And the folks who took the Pennsylvania State Coroner’s Basic Education Course Nov. 30-Dec. 5 know why.

“I provided an overview of DNA analysis, how it is used for human identification, and how it applies to their jobs as coroners,” explained Boyer, a nationally recognized authority on DNA identification in mass casualty incidents.

Boyer came to Keuka from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where he served as program manager for the Department of Defense (DoD) DNA reference specimen collection program and director of operations of the DoD DNA Repository from 1997 to 2006.

He assisted in developing DNA identification operating procedures for the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) and served as team leader for the AFDIL at numerous mass fatality incidents including Hurricane Katrina, Space Shuttle Columbia, United Airlines Flight 93 (Shanksville, Pa.), and America Airlines Flight 261 (the Pentagon).

In the fall of 2008, Boyer co-authored a training manual for DNA evidence collection in mass fatality incidents for the U.S. Department of State and traveled to the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid to train Iraqi scientists in DNA sample collection from human remains.

Boyer, who has lectured nationally on DNA reference specimen collection and biological evidence collection in mass fatalities, is scheduled to make a presentation at the Michigan Medical Examiners annual conference in October 2010.