International Forensic program

IFP Staff

Stefan Schmitt, Director

Born and Raised in Germany, Stefan Schmitt received his undergraduate degree in Archaeology from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in Guatemala, Central America. His vision of forensic science and human rights was initially formed in Guatemala, where providing victims and their families with an objective truth has provided the means to become advocates of their own cause, often after many decades of being victimized with impunity. 

In 1992 Schmitt helped set the foundation for an independent non-governmental forensic team documenting mass graves in Guatemala with the help of Dr. Clyde Snow and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. Schmitt directed the team and its investigations for the first years of its existence.  In 1995, based on the team's forensic work, and prior to the Guatemalan truth commission, the team published the first in-depth analysis of the violence suffered by several communities in the Department of Baja Verapaz in Guatemala.

Since 1996, Schmitt has been living with his family in Tallahassee where he received his Masters of Science degree in Criminology from Florida State University.  Prior to joining Physicians for Human Rights as the Director of the International Forensic Program, he worked for nine and a half years at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Crime Lab.  As a Crime Lab Analyst, Schmitt has led crime scene investigations and provided expert testimony in support of death investigations for the law enforcement community in thirteen north Florida counties.

Schmitt's experience in training and teaching ranges from working on the design of distance learning courses to the development of security related material and training for law enforcement. For Florida State University's School of Criminology he developed and taught courses on Forensic Investigations and Human Rights.  Amongst other things, Schmitt has trained law enforcement in the recovery of surface and buried human skeletal remains through the International Association for Identification and at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.  As part of an effort of the Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, he developed protocols and helped design training with regard to human trafficking for Florida's law enforcement community.

Internationally, Schmitt has provided expertise in forensic anthropology and human identification while forming part of human rights investigations in Iraq, Honduras, Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda, Algeria, Afghanistan, and Liberia. 

His latest publications include a Chapter entitled "Mass Graves and the Collection of Forensic Evidence: Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity" in Taphonomy: the Postmortem Fate of Human Remains (edited by Marcella Sorg and William D. Haglund) and "Law Enforcement Responses to Human Trafficking."  in Florida Responds to Human Trafficking. (Editors: Terry Coonan and Robin Thompson. Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, 2003)