Barry A. J. Fisher served as the Crime Laboratory Director for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, a position he held from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He began his career in criminalistics with the Sheriff's crime lab in 1969 and worked in a wide variety of assignments. His current interests concern the interrelationship between forensic science and the law along with public policy issues concerning the timely delivery of quality forensic support services to the criminal justice system. He served as a member of the American Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section's Ad Hoc Committee to Ensure the Integrity of the Criminal Process and served as a member of the American Judicature Society's Commission of Forensic Science and Public Policy. Fisher is a member of many professional organizations. He is a Distinguished Fellow and past-president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and was awarded the Academy's highest award, the Gradwohl Medallion. He served as president of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, president of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors and a past-chairman of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors - Laboratory Accreditation Board. He is a founding director and served on the Board of Directors of the National Forensic Science Technology Center from 1995 until 2007. He is a member of the US DOJ Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Advisor Council. Fisher is a member of several editorial boards: the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the Journal of Forensic Identification, Forensic Science Policy and Management and the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Fisher is an alumni member of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and is a member of the IACP's Forensics Committee. His textbook, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, co-authored with David R. Fisher, is in its 8th edition and enjoys wide popularity. He has co-authored two other books as well: Forensics Demystified and Introduction to Criminalistics: The Foundation of Forensic Science. Fisher speaks throughout the United States, and has lectured in Canada, England, Australia, Singapore, France, Israel, Japan, China, Turkey and Portugal on forensic science laboratory practices, quality assurance and related topics. He led a forensic science delegation to lecture to forensic scientists in the People's Republic of China in 2000. Since retiring, Fisher has consulted for the United Nations Ofice of Drugs and Crime, the United States Department of Justice, International Criminal Investigative Training Program (ICITAP) and Analytic Services Inc., a not-for-profit institue that provides studies and analyses to aid decision-makers in national security, homeland security, and public safetyFisher, a native New Yorker, received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the City College of New York. He holds a Master of Science degree in chemistry from Purdue University and an M.B.A. degree from California State University, Northridge. Barry and his wife Susan live in Los Angeles. They have two married sons: David, a criminalist with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Forensic Biology Department, and Michael, an entrepreneur, and seven grandchildren.