The FBI is honoring one of the schools at YSU for aiding in their investigations.

YSU's Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geology, and Environmental Science was given an FBI Directors Community Leadership Award.

YSU professors Tom Jordan and Jeff Dick were presented that award at the FBI's Mahoning County office Tuesday.

The FBI's community leadership award recognizes people that have contributed to assisting law enforcement. YSU has helped by using its special crime-fighting equipment, specifically ground penetrating radar.

"The geophysical methods that we use are non-evasive, meaning you can monitor or detect things from the surface without having to excavate or dig a hole and disrupt any kind of evidence," said YSU Professor Dr. Jeff Dick.

Ground penetrating radar uses high-frequency radio waves that penetrate deep into the ground.

"They reflect, and they refract off of different layers based off their electrical properties. We can deduce debts of buried objects such as bones or drums or cars or a whole host of things," said YSU professor Tom Jordan.

When the radar bounces off solid objects in the ground, it relays the information back to their I-pad. Based on color patterns, they get an idea of what is there.

On several occasions, the geology professors have used their radar unit to help the FBI search for human remains. They've also helped local county sheriff departments.