The Analytical Topical Group continues to benefit from improve attendance (consistently 20 or more) and interest since the partnership was formed with John Jay School of Criminal Justice.  The students in the graduate program in analytical chemistry at The City University of New York are required to attend the seminars and the forensic science students from John Jay can get seminar credit for attending.  Last year we only had one seminar as we are changing the format this year.  We have scheduled the three-fall 2009 seminars for January 22, 2010. New CUNY faculty will be presenting the seminars as part of the Chemistry Doctoral Programs Seminar Day.

Minutes of Meetings: No formal meetings were held.

The use of improvised explosives for criminal, domestic, and international terrorism is an ever-increasing problem.  Methods for homemade manufacture of these non-military and non-industrial explosives often require little-to-no background in chemistry.  The clandestine manufacture of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is no exception.  This rather exotic explosive is currently receiving considerable attention because of its ease of synthesis and procurement of starting materials.  The research presented here was spawned by earlier work detailing the optical properties of two identified TATP polymorphs (Hietpas et al. 2005; Speir et al. 2006), and a preliminary study by Miller et al. (2006) examining the crystal morphology of TATP synthesized using different acid catalysts.  This presentation expands on the work of Miller et al. (2006) by further detailing the potential linkage between crystal morphology and the specific acid catalyst used during synthesis.  This linkage could be used as an investigative lead when attempting to determine provenance of a TATP sample submitted as evidence.

Peter Diaczuk is the Director of Forensic Science Training, Center for Modern Forensic Practice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. Active in several professional organizations, including the New York Microscopical Society (life member, fellow and current president), Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists (Board of Directors), Diplomate of the American Board of Criminalistics, and Full Member of the Criminalistics Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.  Has given over 50 presentations on forensic science topics, and conducted six workshops on scientific firearm and toolmark examination.

Chairman Emeritus  William E.L. Grossman
Department of Chemistry
Hunter College of The City University of New York
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY   10021
Tel (212) 772-5338/5330
Fax (212) 772-5332

Board
Thomas Kubic, Director, and Program Chair
John Jay School of Criminal Justice of The City University of  New York
899 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
E-mail: ujans@ccny.cuny.edu

David C. Locke, Chairman
Department of Chemistry
Queens College of The City University of New York
65-30 Kissena Boulevard
Flushing, NY   11367-1597
Tel (718) 997-3271

Urs Jans, Director
Department of Chemistry
The City College of The City University of New York
Convent Avenue & 138th Street
New York, NY   10031
Tel (212) 650-8369/6052
Fax (212) 650-6107
 E-mail: ujans@ccny.cuny.edu

Emmanuel Chang, Director
Department of Chemistry
York College of The City University of New York
AC-3F01
Jamaica, New York 11451
E-mail: echang@york.cuny.edu