Matthieu Baudelet of UCF has received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to advance a technique that may help identify human remains found in mass graves. Baudelet’s method uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy to pinpoint the number of individuals in the graves and sort them based on bone metabolism.

“This is unique because it is the first time that elemental profiling will be evaluated on such a large number of individuals,” Baudelet says. “It is gratifying to see the LIBS technology, something I have been working on for the last 17 years, be applied in this situation.”

• Matthieu Baudelet