UPTOWN -- Last week's conference at Duquesne University exploring President John Kennedy's assassination highlighted the traditional realm of forensics -- examining evidence to determine a cause of death.

Recent announcements by local colleges show that forensics is a growing field -- both in terms of performing human autopsies as well as examinations related to computer data and business transactions.

"If you think of forensics as a search for the truth it need not only be applied in cause-of-death situations," said John Rago, director of Duquesne's Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law and associate dean of the law school. "If you have a company, you can find out what went wrong, free of bias and prejudice and focused on the truth."

To that end, Duquesne hopes to begin offering a master's degree in forensic accounting and computers next year. Already, the Wecht Institute serves as an umbrella organization for delivering graduate degree and professional certificate programs in forensic science to students spanning the disciplines of law, nursing, pharmacy, the health sciences, business administration, the environmental sciences and psychology.

"Forensic accounting and computer and economics are very significant fields in the realm of forensic science that are coming to be more and more involved," said Dr. Wecht, the institute's namesake as well as a lawyer and Allegheny County coroner. "All of these things that take place -- major scandals of getting into people's books like Enron and these other big things -- in order to properly deal with these, you need thorough and meticulous analysis by people trained to do this."

For example, a forensic accountant would be a numbers cruncher who could determine if a corporate scandal was caused by a single bullet or multiple shooters, to take a page from the Kennedy assassination. Computer forensics experts can uncover stolen or seemingly lost information on hard drives, discs and e-mail, uncovering hackers and employee thieves.

Surveys indicate forensic accounting is a growing field.

Accounting Today, a business newspaper for the tax and accounting community, reported in its 2003 Top 100 Firms report that forensics/fraud was a key growth area, with the fourth-highest growth rate among accounting services. That rank is up from seventh in 2002 and 10th in 2001. US News & World Report recently called forensic accounting one of the 20 hot jobs of the future.

Kessler International, a New York-based firm that specializes in white-collar crime detection, recently released a study that confirms the growing need for experienced forensic accountants. The study found 39 percent of organizations have considered the need for a forensic accountant. Twenty-eight percent said they had already sought help from a forensic accountant, 18 percent said they required no assistance and 15 percent were unsure of whom or where they should turn to for help.

"Fraud can sometimes be the difference between a company posting a profit or a loss," said Michael Kessler, Kessler's president and CEO. "The results of our survey are indicative of the tightening economy that is causing companies to hunt down any threat to their financial well being."

UNEARTHING INFORMATION

Butler County Community College is preparing professionals along the same vein, but in computers instead of accounting. Its computer forensics program is more popular than anticipated, with 206 students instead of the expected 24. Students learn about firewalls, intrusion detection and how to uncover seemingly lost or erased data to uncover fraud conducted by employees or hackers.

BC3 assistant professor of business Patrick Massaro said the associate's degree in applied science and computer forensics is a mixture of business, criminology and computers.

"The more time passes, I think you'll see more business looking for the skills we're teaching," he said. "We present things so, whether they're working in a private company or in the public sector, the information they collect is jury-proof. We want them to collect the information uncorrupted so the courts will accept it."

BC3 graduated its first class of 30 in May. Either graduates went on to obtain four-year degrees or got jobs as computer security analysts, data recovery specialists or in electronic discovery for attorneys.

The second graduating class will have about 25. There are 206 students in the program. "It went way past our expectations," Mr. Massaro said.

TRADITIONAL STUDY

Conventional forensics also is expanding in Pittsburgh through a partnership between Duquesne's Wecht Institute and Carlow College.

In January, Carlow will begin offering a new bachelor's degree in forensic study.

The program is designed to prepare students for a host of professional opportunities in such areas as pre-medicine and pre-law, law enforcement, government service, health sciences, and coroner and medical examiner offices nationwide.