Gazette-Mail: Canadian scientist talks crime scene science with sold out Culture Center crowd

Jennifer Gardy is a detective, but not the kind you’re imagining. Instead of a pistol and handcuffs, the tools of Gardy’s trade are microscopes and DNA gels.

“I’m the microbe detective,” she likes to tell people.

Gardy actually is a senior scientist with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and has an assistant professorship at the University of British Columbia. In her day job, she studies how diseases are spread through the world and tries to track down the next big breakouts before they happen.

Sometimes she’s a television show host, too. She is an occasional host of Canada’s “The Nature Things,” a more than half-century old documentary series from Canada that looks at the science behind popular topics of the day.
But on Thursday night, she was a little bit of both.

She spoke in front of a sold-out crowd at the Culture Center Theater at the state Capitol about the work she does and how scientists around the world are embarking on new discoveries that are changing the way forensic analysts help solve crimes. Read the full story »