Brian Hoey, '90, M.S. '92: How NIU Shaped A Leader in Forensic Science
By Tony Scott
Brian Hoey, '90, M.S. '92, recalls that early on at NIU, an anthropology professor asked him what his major was, and when he told him it was biology, the professor said he would never look at the world the same way again.
"It had a profound influence on me - and he was right!" he said.
While Hoey didn't envision being in law enforcement growing up, his love of science and math, combined with an inspirational visit from a DNA criminology expert while at NIU, set him on a path for success in a fascinating career.
Hoey, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from NIU and an M.B.A. from William Woods University in Missouri, retired in June 2026 as the laboratory director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratory, a position he had held since January 2018.
Hoey began at the Missouri State Highway Patrol in 1993 as a criminalist and forensic scientist working in DNA. He eventually moved up the ladder, serving as a laboratory supervisor, manager and assistant director before being named director.
"The greatest reward was the mission, the purpose: doing science for victims of crime, a job they could not do for themselves," he said. "Later in my career, the reward was leading scientists whose work genuinely mattered to victims, families and the justice system."
He continued, "That same mission was also the challenge: the work carried real meaning, the stakes were high, and the responsibility of it all, was both challenging and rewarding."
Hoey worked many important cases over the years. Two of them stand out in particular.
The first was the October 2000 plane crash that claimed the life of Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan as well as the governor's son and an aide.
"We worked directly on the samples to identify the people aboard, running them around the clock for roughly a week straight," Hoey said. "It was a geniune tragedy, and being part of that effort was one of the most demanding and meaningful things I was ever involved in."
The second case was in 2011, when a devastating EF5 tornado hit the Missouri town of Joplin. The storm killed 158 people.
"By then I was a manager, no longer working samples on the bench, but I led the group of DNA scientists who identified victims of the tornado," Hoey said. "Being able to give those families answers — to play a part in that — is the kind of thing that reminds you why this work matters."
Hoey acknowledged the modern popularity of true crime TV shows, podcasts and other media. He said the biggest misconceptions are the complexity of most cases and the pace at which cases are solved.
"Real casework is far more involved — and far slower — than an hour of television suggests," he said. "The other thing is a kind of selection bias. The cases that make it onto true-crime shows and podcasts are the ones that resolved cleanly and satisfyingly; that’s what makes them compelling to watch. The vast majority of forensic work doesn’t look like that, and the everyday reality of the lab rarely makes for good TV."
Hoey grew up in the Chicago suburb of Calumet City, with parents who were both involved in education. His father was a teacher and later administrator at Fenger High School in Roseland and his mom began a job as a librarian at Wentsworth Junior High in Calumet City when Hoey began high school. As a child, Hoey had a love for science and math, and the wonder of how things work.
"I did really well in science in high school, especially anatomy and physiology, which was my first real passion," he said. "That led me to biology at NIU."
Hoey had a feeling that he belonged the minute he first visited NIU, despite first looking at other schools.
"I was comfortable with the size and the sense of community at NIU," he said. "I toured a couple of departments — biology and music — and the professors actually engaged with me. They talked with me, asked about my ambitions and what I wanted to do and made me feel welcome. At a lot of the larger universities I felt like just another number. NIU made me feel like I belonged, like I was part of the campus and the community from the moment I stepped onto it. That was a good feeling."
While he loved science, it was when he experienced a talk by Dennis Reeder, who was a researcher in forensic science, at NIU that lit a spark under Hoey to explore forensic DNA.
"Dennis was from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and as he described the opportunities in the field, something just clicked," Hoey said. "This was the late '80s and early '90s, right when forensic DNA had exploded. The technique had been developed in the UK by Alec Jeffreys in 1985 and made its way to the United States around 1987 or '88 — right as I was finishing my undergraduate work at NIU. The timing was perfect for me."
Hoey also had a number of science professors who impacted him at NIU and became his mentors, including Neil Polans, Mitch Altschuler and Dan Olson.
"Dan was the anatomy lab coordinator, and even though I focused on molecular biology in graduate school, I was a teacher's assistant for anatomy — and in that role, and well beyond it, Dan had an enormous influence on me," he said.
Hoey hadn't planned on going to graduate school, but recalled someone coming into the lab while he was working as an independent study senior and saying that there was grant money available and not enough students in the graduate programs.
"I'd had no intention of going to graduate school, but the people around me in the biology department encouraged me, and it all happened in a matter of weeks," he recalled. "I took the GRE, passed, applied, and was in. I graduated in August and started graduate school about a week later."
Hoey describes achieving his master's degree from NIU as a "huge unlock."
"I honestly can't say how much was NIU itself, how much was the department and how much was simple serendipity — but it gave me a leg up that not many people had back then, especially in forensic science," he said. "It set me on my trajectory from the very start, and I have only Northern Illinois University to thank for that."
Hoey said NIU took a "pretty unremarkable kid and made him somewhat remarkable."
"Going from a bench analyst all the way to director of a laboratory system running seven labs with 129 employees, none of that would have been possible without what I learned at NIU," he said. " And I don’t just mean the academics. I mean the lessons about community, culture, friendships, relationships and connections. The collective experience of being on a campus like NIU's made me the person I became, made possible the career I had and gave me the ability to now enjoy a well-earned retirement."
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