User:Wdmll

William D. McDougall ll, I worked in Forensics and other analytical fields for over forty years. I'm now retired, having been involved in several scientific publications; I thought I would add my name to the listing of people named William McDougall. It is a proud Scottish name. wdmll@comcast.net

Professional Experience

Denver Police Department Crime Laboratory- (1971-2005) Thirty four years performing forensic physical evidence analysis on controlled substances (including steroids), blood alcohol, urine narcotic analysis, toxic vapors, solvents, ignitable liquids, poisons and arson analysis. During my employment, the level of my responsibility was a variation of challenging and demanding analyses performed independently under general supervision. For about five years I was a section leader. I was acknowledged as an expert witness in city, county and federal courts. I was also involved in method development. I developed gas chromatographic quantitative methods for blood alcohol, heroin and cocaine. In addition, I developed many procedures for the detection and identification of other controlled acidic and basic (prescription, nonprescription, controlled and clandestine) substances (< 400 daltons) using gas chromatography, infrared spectrophotometry and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

For over twenty years I managed the organic instrumentation laboratory section. I was involved in the procurement of four major instrumentation packages plus a number of smaller packages. I was the laboratory consultant as to what equipment was needed and what companies to purchase (lease) it from. I researched the instrumentation market and I attended instrumentation seminars to keep abreast as to the newest advancements in technology. I personally worked with the instrumentation companies, getting the best pricing. However, most importantly, I chose equipment that was best suited for the laboratory's needs. I also took into consideration, what company made the best equipment and what type of support and service was offered. My achieved goal and objective was to maintain a diversified “state of the art” organic laboratory section with "minimal down time". The equipment was routinely rotated out (purchasing a new package approximately every five years). The equipment included single quadrupole (EI) mass spectrometers (Agilent and Finnigan), Ion trap mass spectrometers (including MS/MS) sold by Varian and Finnigan. A battery of gas chromatographs from Varian, Agilent and Finnigan. UV and infrared spectrophotometers (Beckman, Perkin Elmer, Agilent, Digilab and Nicolet). A Waters' HPLC and API, plus a particle beam single quadrupole mass spectrometer were purchased in 2001 (for steroid analysis). After the new equipment was installed, I helped develop the initial methods and protocol. Managing the instrumentation section also involved routine maintenance; trouble shooting and minor repairs plus I requested and scheduled all of the service calls and PMs. I cleaned the ion sources, changed mechanical pump oil, tuned the mass spectrometers and changed out columns. I ordered all of the supplies (columns, glass inserts and etc.). As the equipment aged, I trained myself to anticipate what might go wrong, to contact the service people before instrumentation went down and to determine when equipment needed to be changed out.

During my last four years with the Denver Police Department Laboratory, I utilized HPLC reversed phase chromatography, and after searching the Web, I modified and adapted (2) published papers for the analysis of steroids. Both papers were for the analysis of steroids using HPLC/MS (single quadrupole). One method dealt with API positive ESI mass spectrometry and the second dealt with particle beam EI mass spectrometry. I also developed reversed phase HPLC methods for acidic and basic pharmaceutical compounds (prescription and controlled). Finally, I introduced and modified a paper from South Africa involving arson analysis by Ion Trap GC/MS/MS.

Colorado Department of Health- (1965-1971) Five and a half years (four and a half years with the Community Pesticide Study). My duties were pesticide analysis in applied research and clinical analysis, in a federally funded pesticide research study. Soil samples, house dust samples, air samples and cadaver tissue samples were extracted and analyzed for pesticides. Instrumentation included gas chromatography and Infrared spectrophotometry. I coauthored an article for a scientific journal.

US Naval Reserve- (1962-1964) Two years active duty on the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La CVA 38 working as a hospital corpsman. Most of my time was utilized in the clinical laboratory. My duties were routine clinical analysis. At times I was in charge of the Laboratory.

Honors and Awards:

Denver Police Department Civilian Employee of the Year (1995) "United Who's Who" Empowering Executives and Professionals. (Page 222) (2004-2005)

Certificate of recognition for serving on the Denver Police Civilian Employee Incentive Committee from January 1997 through June 2005.

Certificate of acknowledgment for support of "the Forensic Science Program" at Metropolitan State College of Denver. (April 2005)

Instructor, Consultant, Lectures, Paper and Web Presentations:

Lectures and/or papers on arson analysis using ion trap mass spectrometry to a "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms" workshop/American Academy of Forensic Sciences" annual meeting (1990), a "Southwest Association of Forensic Scientists/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and firearms" arson course (1990) and a "Metropolitan State College of Denver" forensic arson presentation. (1993)

Guest lecturer for Digilab/BioRad in San Diego at the University of California “Function and Use of IRD” (fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer detector used with gas chromatography). (September 2004)

Presentation given to a joint "Denver Fire Department/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arson investigators" seminar. The presentation covered the theory of gas chromatography, quadrupole mass spectrometry and ion trap mass spectrometry in addition to arson analysis. (September 2004) An extended CD version of the above arson analysis slide presentation (including instrumental theory) given to a Criminalistics class at Metropolitan State College of Denver. (April 2005)

Web Arson Analysis Slide Presentation -  AAFS (American Academy of Forensic Sciences)  link under “Publications and Resources” in their forensic link. A second link at Zeno’s Forensic Site in the Arson Category. Now also linked to a Forensic Forum at www.chemicalanalysis.com, plus at Fire and Arson Investigation Resources (www.InterFire.org).

Author and Contributor:

Pesticides Monitoring Journal, December 1974-“Contributions of Household Dust to the Human Exposure to Pesticides” (Co-Author)

Forensic Analyses by Gas Chromatography 1972- By Patrick Y. Howard, Varian Applications Laboratory (consultant Source) (I have a copy of the publication)

Instrumental Data For Drug Analysis CRC, volume six and seven 1996 (Co-Author) ((GC/IRD controlled substances Reference Standards (including steroids))

Education and Training:

High School Diploma- Dighton High School, Dighton Kansas (1961)

Midwest University-Medical Technical Institute, Guymon Oklahoma. Twelve-month course in medical technology. Eight months 1961-1962 (interrupted by activation into the Navy) and completed in 1965.

Aims Community College, University of Northern Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver and Arapaho Community College- approx. (60) quarter hours in chemistry, physics, math, biology, electronics and etc. (1970-1992)

United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (FDA)-“Principles and Practice of Analytical Chemistry of Pesticides”. A two-month course (classroom and/or laboratory activities eight hours a day) five days a week. The course included extensive usage of instrumentation (gas chromatography) and sample preparation. Perrine Florida (1969) Federal Bureau of Investigation- Three courses (one week each), criminalistics, liquid chromatography and arson analysis (gas chromatography) training. (1976-1983)

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms- (one week each) Arson analysis (gas chromatography) training and advanced (mass spectrometry) arson analysis training. (1988 & 1997)

International Symposium on "the Forensic Aspects of Arson Investigations", George Mason University, Fairfax Virginia (one week). (1995) Finnigan Mat Institute- (one week each) Two courses on mass spectrometry, one on mass spectrum interpretation. (late 1970,early 1980 and mid 1980)

Gulf South Research Institute- Course on gas chromatography. (0ne week) (1976)

Hewlett Packard (Agilent)- Course on capillary chromatography. (one day) (1977)

Beckman Instruments Inc.- Course on infrared spectrophotometry. (one day) (1978)

Spectra Physics- Course on liquid chromatography. (one day) (1980) Varian Instrumentation Group- Three courses on gas chromatography. (1981 & 1988) The Training Masters- (two days) Theory and application of high performance liquid chromatography. (2001)

Waters Corporation- (four days) A Waters Micromass course on API mass spectrometry theory and operation. (2002)