Valery N. Aginsky, Ph.D. is a forensic chemist of over 37 years of experience specializing in the field of ink analysis (ink comparison, ink dating) and document dating. He has worked for a major government laboratory for twenty years (1980 - 2000) as a Forensic Chemist and Document Analyst. Since 2001, he has worked full time in the private sector.
Dr. Aginsky has conducted seminars on ink analysis and dating in the United States, Canada, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Columbia, and Australia. He testified regarding ink (paper, toner) analysis and ink and document dating in criminal and civil matters and in arbitrations in the United States, Canada, England, Russia, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Israel, China, Iceland, Poland, and Gibraltar. (See Statements by Courts of Law and Cases of Note)
Dr. Aginsky is experienced in a wide range of physical (optical) and chemical examination techniques, including the analysis and dating of ink on documents and the comparative analysis of inks, toners and paper by Microscopy, Microspectrophotometry, Ultraviolet/Visible and Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR microscopy), Thin-Layer Chromatography, and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. He is the author of more than 25 peer-reviewed articles on ink analysis and dating, including chapters in several books and encyclopedias. (See Publications)
Dr. Aginsky is the author of two ink aging methods that analyze ink volatile components (not ink dye components) and that have been tested and applied to actual cases by multiple forensic laboratories. These two ink aging methods are the Sequential Extraction Technique (SET) and Solvent Loss Ratio Method (SLRM). The SET and SLRM measure certain parameters of ink that decrease as ink ages on paper. Other ink entries are not necessary for comparison.
Dr. Aginsky has developed the SET as a result of many years of research of the "extent (percent) of extraction" ink aging methodology developed and published by Dr. Antonio A. Cantu in the 1980s. The SET is the only ink aging method that has proven its reliability through outside proficiency testing using "blind" samples (outside proficiency tests in 1995, 2001, and 2011)