Media advisory – Missing-in-action recovery and identification project

5/19/15

What: News conference announcing a UW–Madison project to identify and bring home the remains of service members

When: 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 20

Where: Room 1111 at the Genetics-Biotechnology Center Building, 425 Henry Mall

Contact: Jed Henry, 608-239-2228, jed.henry@wisc.edu; Charles Konsitzke, cmkonsitzke@wisc.edu

University of Wisconsin–Madison will join the effort to identify and honor missing American service members by putting the university’s expertise in history, archaeology and forensic and genomic analysis to work in the newly created UW MIA Recovery and Identification Project.

Founding scientists and investigators will describe their plans and the skills they can bring to bear to help repatriate missing service members in a media conference 1 p.m. Wednesday in Room 1111 at the Genetics-Biotechnology Center Building, 425 Henry Mall.

In 2013, UW–Madison’s Biotechnology Center began working with Middleton-based researcher Jed Henry to identify the remains of Lawrence Gordon, a World War II soldier declared missing by the U.S. Army in 1944. With support from UW–Madison experts, Henry successfully lobbied the French and German governments to exhume remains and conduct genetic tests that determined Gordon had been mistakenly identified as a German soldier. Gordon was returned to his family in his native Canada and laid to rest in August.

Congress has been critical of Department of Defense offices charged with recovering missing service members and called on the government to tap the expertise of university researchers like those at the Biotechnology Center.

If you are planning coverage of the announcement, or have questions, please contact Jed Henry or Charles Konsitzke of the Biotechnology Center.

Parking information is available at www.biotech.wisc.edu/uwbcinfo/parking.