FBI cryptanalyst works to promote forensic science to next generation

WASHINGTON – When FBI investigators find a jumble of code or an unfamiliar gang tattoo, they ask forensic examiners like Deneen Hernandez to make sense of the symbols so they can crack the case.

Hernandez is one of two Native American forensic examiners in the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, and she estimates she’s one of only about four in the United States. That’s something she’s working to change.

This past summer, Hernandez welcomed a group of Native American high school students participating in a science, technology, engineering and math program to FBI headquarters in Washington. S...