M. Katherine Moore

Background

Kathy Moore is a forensic scientist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's Forensic Laboratory. She has worked for NOAA since 1990, joining the NWFSC forensic team in 2013. Much of her career has been spent developing methods for wildlife forensics or analyzing cases. She specializes in DNA- and morphology-based species identification of evidence in suspected violations of the Endangered Species, Lacey, or Marine Mammal Protection Acts, as well as regulations associated with the seafood trade and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing. Kathy has also been active in promoting stringent standards for forensic science in the U.S., having served as the inaugural chairperson of both the Scientific Working Group for Wildlife Forensics and its successor, the National Institute of Standards and Technology/Organization of Scientific Area Committees' Wildlife Subcommittee. She has also served as a board member of the Society for Wildlife Forensic Sciences. Ms. Moore has an undergraduate degree in biology and marine science from Smith College, and an M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Charleston, South Carolina.

Current Research

Kathy's current focus is on casework and building validated sequence databases for newly-encountered taxa. Casework always brings new species to learn about!