Nicholas Passalacqua
Associate Professor | Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC, UNITED STATES
Nicholas Passalacqua is a co-founder and a current co-editor of the journal Forensic Anthropology.
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Biography
Dr. Passalacqua received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Michigan State University in 2012 and was certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology in 2016. Dr. Passalacqua is an Assistant Professor and the Forensic Anthropology Program Coordinator at Western Carolina University. Prior to arriving at WCU, he worked as a deploying forensic anthropologist with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency – Laboratory in Oahu, Hawaii.
Dr. Passalacqua is a co-founder and a current co-editor of the journal Forensic Anthropology. He is also currently a board member of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, the chair of the Anthropology Consensus Body of the Academy Standards Board, and a member of the Anthropology sub-committee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees.
Dr. Passalacqua co-authored the award-winning textbook: Forensic anthropology: Current methods and practice, as well as the books: Ethics and professionalism in forensic anthropology, and A laboratory manual for forensic anthropology. Dr. Passalacqua also has numerous publications in such journals as: Forensic Anthropology, The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, The International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, and The Journal of Forensic Sciences, as well as chapters in such books as: Skeletal trauma analysis: Case studies in context, The analysis of burned human remains, Age estimation of the human skeleton, and A companion to forensic anthropology.
Industry Expertise (3)
Writing and Editing
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (5)
Education
Biological Anthropology
Human Skeletal Biology
Forensic Anthropology
Ethics
Accomplishments (3)
April Campbell Graduate Student Forensic Anthropology Fellowship (professional)
2011 Michigan State University Forensic Anthropology Laboratory
Student Scholarship Award (professional)
2010 Forensic Sciences Foundation
J. Lawrence Angel Award (professional)
2012 Student paper award for AAFS Physical Anthropology Section 2012 poster: A Comparison of Age- related Macroscopic Traits of the Ilium and Sacrum.
Education (4)
Michigan State University: Ph.D., Anthropology 2012
Michigan State University: B.A., Anthropology 2005
Michigan State University: M.A., Anthropology 2011
Mercyhurst College: M.S., Anthropology 2007
Affiliations (6)
- American Academy of Forensic Sciences
- American Association of Physical Anthropologists
- Organization of Scientific Area Committee (OSAC) - Forensic Anthropology
- Paleopathology Association
- Physicians for Human Rights
- Michigan Mortuary Response Team
Links (4)
Languages (1)
- English
Media Appearances (5)
Nuns Digging Up Sister's Remains Find Body Intact Four Years After Death
Top Stories online
2023-05-25
“This can vary a lot, depending on the type of coffin,” Nicholas Passalacqua told Newsweek. He is an associate professor and director of forensic anthropology at Western Carolina University. “Today, most coffins are fancy and made out of wood, so they will decompose over time, but this will take many years.” The speed of decomposition is greatly dependent on the burial environment as well as the burial method. “The primary factor that affects the rate of decomposition is temperature,” Passalacqua said. “The warmer it is, the more active bacteria and enzymes will be and also the more active insect scavengers will be because their metabolisms are correlated to ambient temperature.
Forensic science community recognizes work of Nick Passalacqua
WCU Stories online
As a forensic anthropologist, Western Carolina University assistant professor Nicholas Passalacqua has always believed he was doing important work through his teaching and his research.
Family believes Phylicia Thomas’ remains are on Hunlock Township property
Times Leader online
2018-01-20
John Ackerman, a Westmoreland County deputy coroner and a cadaver dog handler, and Dr. Nicholas Passalacqua, a forensic anthropology professor at Western Carolina University in North Carolina, explained well-trained cadaver dogs can detect human decomposition years after a body has been moved or buried.
How Would Humans Decompose on Mars?
Discover Magazine online
2021-09-29
Humans evolved on Earth and our home planet is the perfect environment for us, alive or dead. On Earth, human remains eventually decompose as the environment recycles the body’s biomass, the organic material that makes us up. “Certain organisms basically have evolved to exploit the biomass of dead organisms. That’s just their thing, their niche,” says Nicholas Passalacqua, program director of the forensic anthropology program at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
How would humans decompose on Mars?
Astronomy online
2021-09-24
Humans evolved on Earth and our home planet is the perfect environment for us, alive or dead. On Earth, human remains eventually decompose as the environment recycles the body’s biomass, the organic material that makes us up. “Certain organisms basically have evolved to exploit the biomass of dead organisms. That’s just their thing, their niche,” says Nicholas Passalacqua, program director of the forensic anthropology program at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
Event Appearances (5)
Missing data imputation methods and their performance with biodistance analyses
American Association of Physical Anthropology 84th annual meeting St. Louis, MO
A look into the past, present, and future of decompositionresearch and the estimation of the postmortem interval
American Academy of Forensic Sciences 67th annual meeting Orlando, FL
Exploratory data analysis in bioarchaeology using latent class analysis
American Association of Physical Anthropology 84th annual meeting St. Louis, MO
Investigations into age-related changes in the humanmandible
American Academy of Forensic Sciences 67th annual meeting Orlando, FL
Regional bioarchaeological investigations of Medieval Asturias, Spain
VII Congreso Internacional de Arqueología del Norte Peninsuar Vitoria, Spain
Articles (5)
How Do Drugs Affect the Skeleton? Implications for Forensic Anthropology
Biology2022 Forensic anthropologists analyze human remains to assist in the identification of the deceased, predominantly by assessing age-at-death, sex, stature, ancestry and any unique identifying features. Whilst methods have been established to create this biological profile of the skeleton, these may be influenced by a number of factors.
The importance of professional organizations as disciplinary leaders and the need for meaningful ethical codes in anthropology
American Anthropologist2022 In April 2021, a news stories broke about the misuse of the remains of a child killed in the 1985 MOVE bombing (eg, Flaherty 2021; Kassutto 2021). These news stories outlined unethical behavior by biological anthropologists from the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University (Flaherty 2021; Kassutto 2021).
Caseloads in forensic anthropology
American Journal of Biological Anthropology2022 There are currently no baseline data regarding the amount and types of case reports produced by forensic anthropologists. This research fills that gap by providing data on caseloads of practicing forensic anthropologists and identifying variables that may contribute to amount and type of casework.
The John A. Williams Human Skeletal Collection at Western Carolina University
Forensic Sciences2022 This manuscript serves to introduce The John A. Williams Human Skeletal (JAW) Collection, which is a donated skeletal collection consisting of individuals from the Body Donation Program at Western Carolina University. Full body donors decompose naturally at the Forensic Osteology Research Station (FOREST) before curation within the JAW Collection.
“Why Are There So Many Women in Forensic Anthropology?”: An Evaluation of Gendered Experiences in Forensic Anthropology
Forensic Anthropology2022 There is broad discussion of the higher numbers of women in the forensic sciences, particularly when compared to other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In this discussion, we focus on forensic anthropology.
