Dr. Terry W. Fenger was born and raised in northern Illinois and attended Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois, and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he received his doctorate in microbiology in 1976. He conducted post-doctoral research on the replication of the measles virus and herpes virus infections of the eye. When that work was complete, he accepted a position as assistant professor of microbiology at Marshall University.
Fenger was involved in the establishment of the Marshall University Forensic Science Center through his work with the West Virginia State Police Crime Laboratory. After Fenger's work in the Glen Dale Woodall case, where a man was acquitted of rape through DNA evidence, the professor developed graduate-level courts for workers in the crime lab.
That program has since grown into a highly-successful educational, research and service center that addressed the need of the national forensic science community and brings recognition and economic benefits to Marshall University and Huntington.
