DR. JEFFERY K. TOMBERLIN is the laboratory director and principal investigator of the group. He is a native of Georgia. He received a B.S. inBiology from the University of Georgia in 1993 and his M.S. in Entomology from Clemson University in 1996. After attaining his M.S., he worked for two years in the laboratory of Dr. Lee Goff in Hawaii. He returned to Georgia in 1998 and received his doctorate in 2001 from the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia.
Active in the forensic entomology community since 1994, he has examined insect evidence from several investigations throughout the United States prior to accepting a faculty position in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University in 2002. Since moving to Texas, he has played a major role with the development of the North American Forensic Entomology Conference and the North American Forensic Entomology Association of which he served as president. Additionally, he is certified by the American Board of Forensic Entomology.
Dr. Tomberlin teaches two courses, An Introduction to the Forensic Sciences and Science and Law. His research is primarily focused on tritrophic interactions as it relates to elucidating the pre-colonization interval (PCI) of decomposing human remains by blow flies. However, he has a few side projects that focus on other areas of forensic entomology. He currently has four undergraduate, two MS, six PhD students and one postdoctoral associate in what is designated the FLIES (Forensic Laboratory for Investigative Entomological Sciences) Facility.