Cristián Orrego, director, forensic program, Human Rights Center, Berkeley Law

Before joining the Human Rights Center, Cristián Orrega, a biochemist and forensic geneticist, served as assistant laboratory director and criminalist supervisor at the California Department of Justice's Jan Bashinski DNA Laboratory in Richmond, Calif.

He is a founding member of the Alliance of Forensic Scientists for Human Rights and Humanitarian Investigations, a volunteer organization, which has worked closely with the Human Rights Center since 2003, on the El Salvador DNA Reunification Project.

Orrego was appointed science advisor, in 2006, to the Chilean government's Presidential Commission on Policies for Human Rights, and later served on Chile's International Commission of Experts for the Legal Medical Service, Ministry of Justice (2007 to 2010).

Orrego's role in enhancing the scientific capacity of NGOs involved in the defense of human rights dates back to 1984, when he served on the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.