About

Nicholas Passalacqua is an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University in the Department of Anthropology and serves as the Director of the Forensic Anthropology Laboratory. His research interests focus on forensic anthropology, with particular emphasis on ethics and professionalism within the discipline, as well as the practice and operational aspects of forensic anthropology. He is a co-founder and current editor of the journal Forensic Anthropology and has held prominent roles such as Vice President of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Chair of the Anthropology Consensus Body of the American Academy of Forensic Science Standards Board, and co-Chair of the Anthropology Subcommittee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees. Passalacqua has received recognition for his contributions, including the 2021 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Outstanding Emerging Forensic Scientist Award. He has co-authored the textbook 'Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice' in its third edition, along with other publications on ethics, professionalism, and laboratory methods in forensic anthropology.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Social Science
• Engineering ethics
• Computer Science
• Law
• Anthropology
• Geography
• Mathematics
• Biology
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Statistics
• Econometrics
• Medical education

Selected publications

• The need for additional environmental diversity in human decomposition research facility locations

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  OA PDFDOI

• A Review of Research Aims for Historical Anatomical Skeletal Collections in the United States

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Many osteological methods used by biological anthropologists today were initially developed using historical anatomical skeletal collections such as the Hamann-Todd and Terry Collections. However, these collections were amassed through state legislation that permitted the dissection and curation of unclaimed individuals. These laws targeted low socioeconomic and marginalized communities that were less likely to be able to afford burial or claim relatives. Until recently, very few scholars have acknowledged the lived experiences of individuals who make up such collections. As such, there are ongoing conversations about the ethics of continued research with these collections. Part of evaluating this ethical dilemma is understanding exactly how these collections are being used for research, to evaluate to what extent these collections are used for methodological studies that neglect to consider the identities of the people in their samples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we categorized and analyzed research aims for 100 academic journal articles and 185 conference abstracts that used or significantly discussed the Terry, Hamann-Todd, Cobb, or Huntington Collections. RESULTS: Results show that most studies conducted using these collections have historically entertained questions of methodological significance, but there is a recent shift toward studies that focus on the lived experiences of individuals that compose historical anatomical skeletal collections. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis demonstrates that the discipline is responding to recent debates about the ethics of historical skeletal collections and is moving toward establishing better recognition of the individuals that constitute some of the most influential collections in biological anthropology.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Future of Forensic Anthropology Practice and Education: Competencies, Certification, and Licensure

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2025-03-01 · 5 citations

  article

  Forensic anthropology must embrace standards and credentialing that align with other medicolegal disciplines, such as forensic pathology and forensic odontology. This involves establishing itself more firmly as an essential specialty in the medicolegal system and limiting practice to qualified professionals. Without educational or professional requirements to practice forensic anthropology, the competencies of those involved in medicolegal cases vary, despite the potentially serious legal impact of errors. Negligent work can impede decedent identification or wrongly convict or free a suspect. Erroneous and unprofessional work also misrepresents the field and may deter agencies from utilizing forensic anthropologists. This commentary aims to convey the need to further professionalize forensic anthropology through the standardization of education, qualifications, and practice. Differences between certification and licensure and their implications are discussed. Recent and upcoming developments in the field highlight progress, including the development of a multi-level certification system and list of core competencies by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA). Additionally, the Anthropology subcommittee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for forensic science (OSAC) is developing a standard for qualifications in forensic anthropology. These developments emphasize the importance of certification and standardization in education and training for the advancement of forensic anthropology. Standardization efforts such as these will foster a cohesive, respected practice to serve the evolving needs of the medicolegal system.

  PublisherDOI

• Forensic Anthropology as Practiced in the United States: Qualifications, Standards, and Ethical Practice

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2025-08-01

  article

  This paper serves as the introduction to the special issue with the same title. This special issue grew from a symposium held at the annual scientific meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists in 2023 in Reno, Nevada. The conference aimed to highlight the various issues of qualifications, standards, and ethics as relevant to the praxis of forensic anthropology. The resulting papers focus on these three main themes, exploring the main topics of discussion within the discipline. We broadly summarize the papers of the special issue and discuss their relevance to these three main themes. We conclude with our thoughts on ethics, standards, and qualifications, namely that we envision a field in which qualifications can be demonstrated through certification and eventually licensure. Additionally, we see standard development as being critically important to the professionalization of the field and encourage participation in this development via the review process. Finally, we advocate for an ethical discipline that not only considers data and skeletal analysis but also how we interact with each other as colleagues to create a discipline that is supportive of diversity and fosters creative thought.

  PublisherDOI

• Ethics and Professionalism in Forensic Anthropology

  University of Florida Press eBooks · 2025-11-14

  book1st authorCorresponding

  This book provides discussion and case studies of ethical best practices for the discipline of forensic anthropology, encouraging readers to think critically about professionalism in the discipline, how to recognize ethical challenges, and how to conduct themselves when confronted with them.

  PublisherDOI

• Characteristics of Vertebral Body Augmentation in Human Skeletal Remains

  Forensic Anthropology · 2025-05-20

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Vertebral body compression fractures are extremely common in adults in the United States, particularly postmenopausal women. Vertebral body compression fractures are associated with increased mortality and morbidity and often require medical intervention. Vertebral augmentations such as percutaneous vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty are routinely used to treat vertebral body compression fractures. Here we present two unrelated case studies of willed-body donors exhibiting gross dry bone vertebral augmentations consistent with percutaneous vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. Vertebrae on both donors exhibit characteristics associated with vertebral body compression fractures, such as decreased vertebral height, as well as protruding areas of a hard, off-white colored substance, which was determined to be bone cement. Additionally, radiographic imaging of the affected vertebrae of both donors exhibits the internal presence of bone cement throughout much of the vertebral bodies. Understanding this medical procedure as well as its morphological characteristics permits forensic anthropologists to correctly recognize these vertebral augmentations and associated abnormalities. Additionally, knowledge of these procedures could assist in the identification process of unknown individuals expressing these characteristics.

  PublisherDOI

• The Development of Professional Standards in Forensic Anthropology

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2025-08-29 · 1 citations

  review

  Over the past 50 years, forensic anthropology has grown and matured into a specialized discipline within anthropology. Because of the potential legal ramifications of conducting casework, it is imperative that forensic anthropology practitioners are aware of their role within the medicolegal system, have received the proper education, mentorship, training, and certification within the discipline, and adhere to published national forensic anthropology standards and best practices. In this paper, we outline the development of professional standards in forensic anthropology in the United States. We review the key milestones in the professionalization of forensic anthropology as a discipline, including its development within the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) and the implementation of board certification of practitioners by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. We next discuss the key organizations involved in the drafting of forensic anthropology standards, including the pioneering efforts of the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology and the current work of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-administered Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC). We then discuss the critical role of the AAFS's Academy Standards Board, the standards development organization chosen by the OSAC Forensic Anthropology Subcommittee, which is responsible for further developing and publishing consensus-based national standards and best practices. The development of national standards for forensic anthropology has contributed to the professionalization of the discipline so that practitioners are ideally meeting minimum requirements to improve the reliability, consistency, and transparency of forensic anthropology casework.

  PublisherDOI

• The Development of Standards for the Ethical Use of Human Skeletal Remains for Education, Research, and Training in Forensic Anthropology

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2025-03-01 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We present a proposed standard regarding the use of contemporary human skeletal remains in education, training, and research contexts in forensic anthropology. This document was generated by the Anthropology subcommittee of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science and is currently under review for publication by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences', Academy Standards Board as a joint venture. The OSAC is federally funded and charged with drafting standards documents for various aspects of forensic science in the United States, while the ASB is an accredited Standards Development Organization which reviews and publishes proposed standards documents. The use of real human skeletal remains is crucial for students to learn how to identify human remains and develop various competencies as part of their education and training on their path to becoming professionals; they are also required for research. However, many recent transgressions have highlighted the need for the standardization of practices for the ethical treatment of human remains. We argue that the foundations of the ethical treatment of human remains are: informed consent, deathcare, and service to communities. This document provides a framework for informed consent based on the remains' origin (donated, unclaimed, or unidentified) and how obtained permissions dictate the ethical use of human remains from different contexts. Guidance is also provided for the use of information associated with remains (e.g., images, measurements), data associated with the remains, and their final disposition.

  PublisherDOI

• Unidentified decedent investigation protocols

  Elsevier eBooks · 2024-01-01 · 3 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Origins of Forensic Anthropology in the United States

  Forensic Anthropology · 2024-01-30 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Traditional histories of forensic anthropology focus on key figures, events, and/or publications within a larger narrative of disciplinary formation and expansion. These histories typically highlight individuals such as Thomas Dwight or institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. This project represents an interdisciplinary collaboration with the goal of shedding new light onto the origins of forensic anthropology in the United States. By pulling from a number of published scholarly sources, as well as some unpublished correspondence, this project expands upon the more established historical events concerning the history of forensic anthropology. Here we argue that the origins of contemporary forensic anthropology not only trace back to the work of Wilton Krogman but that Krogman’s forensic anthropology must be understood through the life and work of his mentor, T. Wingate Todd, as well as the Hamann-Todd Collection, early efforts toward personal identification of human skeletal remains, and a complex amalgamation of US and UK influences that Krogman was exposed to through Todd’s mentorship efforts.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Angi M. Christensen

  49 shared

• Eric J. Bartelink

  California State University, Chico

  36 shared

• Marin A. Pilloud

  University of Nevada, Reno

  22 shared

• Roger C. Haut

  Michigan State University

  6 shared

• Alexandra R. Klales

  Washburn University

  5 shared

• Joseph T. Hefner

  Michigan State University

  5 shared

• Heather M. Garvin

  Des Moines University

  5 shared

• Diana L. Messer

  Western Carolina University

  5 shared

Labs

• Forensic Anthropology LaboratoryPI

Education

• PhD, Anthropology

  Michigan State University

  2012

Awards & honors

• 2021 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Outstanding Emerg…