Tripoli, Louis C.

AMERICAN
PHYSICIAN

Louis C. Tripoli is both a physician and a forensic scientist. When not on active duty with the United States Navy (he was called up in August 2004 and deployed to duty in Iraq as a public health expert with the U.S. Marine 4th Civil Affairs Group), he is the Senior Vice President of Correctional Medical Services (CMS), the Chairman of the Correctional Medical Institute, an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, Division of Infectious Diseases, and an Adjunct Professor at St. Louis University's School of Public Health. In addition to being Board Certified in internal medicine, he holds a certificate in forensic medicine from the American College of Forensic Examiners.

Tripoli is the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for the Correctional Medicine Institute, a non-profit charitable educational organization dedicated to the advancement of medical care in correctional settings. He is committed to this premise, both as a forensic scientist and as a physician, because it is his contention that correctional healthcare is a growing specialty, dedicated to a population characterized by uniquely complex medical (and biopsychosocial) needs. As a forensic scientist, he understands that the majority of incarcerated individuals will eventually be released and returned to the community; by positively impacting inmate healthcare, it is also possible to improve public health and the health of the larger community.

Tripoli was born in Oklahoma and raised in Washington, Pennsylvania. The son of Charles and Rita Tripoli, he is one of twelve children, four of whom were adopted from other countries. Tripoli graduated from Harvard University and from medical school at the University of Pittsburgh.

His family has always strongly valued public service, and his father, a family medicine practitioner, has been a participant in numerous international medical missions. While in Iraq, Tripoli called upon his parents to come to Iraq to assist him in facilitating an international medical mission, in which he arranged for an infant with severe hemangiomas on her face (benign tumors of small blood vessels that can cause deformities and impinge on vital structures) to be brought to the USA for life-saving surgical intervention.

Tripoli was a contributing author to Forensic Aspects of Chemical and Biological Terrorism, published in 2004. This text is written particularly for professionals concerned with the interplay of forensics and public health and safety, particularly as they would be impacted by either the threat or the actuality of biochemical terrorism.

see also Anthrax; Bacterial biology; Biological warfare, advanced diagnostics; Biological weapons, genetic identification; Chemical and biological detection technologies.