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Presenter Biography
John S Morgan PhD, Research Scientist, Coptech Systems Inc.
Dr. John S. Morgan operates Coptech Systems, Inc., based in Raleigh, NC, providing specialty manufacturing and consulting related to forensic science, law enforcement, and security technologies. He brings decades of experience conducting and directing research programs across the federal government and private sector. Among other activities, he is conducting research into the causes of forensic science errors related to wrongful convictions as a research consultant for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).Dr. Morgan’s government positions include service as Command Science Advisor for the US Army Special Operations Command, Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Counter-Terrorism Technical Support Office, and Director of the Office of Science & Technology in the Department of Justice’s NIJ. While at NIJ, he received the Service to American medal for his work to expand the nation’s capacity to perform DNA analyses. He has also chaired the Interagency Council on Applied Homeland Security Technology.
Dr. Morgan directed the Center for Forensic Sciences at RTI International, serving as the Principal Investigator of the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence and co-Principal Investigator of the Criminal Justice Test and Evaluation Consortium, as well as the founding director of the National Forensic Science Academy. Prior to his government service, he conducted research at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in defense against weapons of mass destruction, mass spectrometry systems, optoelectronics, and other materials science work.
Dr. Morgan served eight years in the Maryland House of Delegates, representing Howard and Prince George’s Counties and serving on the Judiciary, Ethics, and Commerce and Government Matters Committees. He also served as the Congressional Science Fellow of the American Physical Society.
He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1990; his B.S. in Physics is from Loyola University in Maryland.
