Elizabeth Gardner

Elizabeth Gardner is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Michigan State University (1998). Her research focuses on drugs of abuse, including emerging substances, drug-contaminated currency, and forensic methodologies like bullet analysis and latent fingerprint development. She also investigates gases in human burial sites for forensic anthropology applications.

Dr. Gardner teaches courses in criminalistics and drug chemistry, including CJ350 (Advanced Criminalistics) and FS671 (Conventional Criminalistics). She has served as a thesis advisor for multiple graduate students and actively participates in academic committees. Her work has been funded by grants from organizations such as the National Institute of Justice, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, and the NSF.

Her research has been published in journals like the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Drug Testing and Analysis, and Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience. Key projects include analyzing opioid markets, counterfeit drugs from online pharmacies, and improving ballistics and trace evidence analysis. She collaborates with forensic agencies and contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives in forensic science education and policy.

Dr. Gardner’s professional activities include grant-funded collaborations with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and teaching roles in UAB’s forensic science programs. She emphasizes applied research to address real-world forensic challenges, such as detecting drug residues on currency and improving firing-distance determination methods.