Mass spectrometry (MS) is an example of an analytical technique that enjoys growing popularity within the forensic community, with emerging applications ranging from identification of counterfeit drugs 10 to detection of explosives. A wide range of the state-of-the-art MS instrumentation is now widely available in research facilities in all major universities and many smaller colleges, while the growing availability of relatively inexpensive mass spectrometers has already started a trend of incorporating MS in the experimental arsenal of undergraduate teaching labs. Although the exact statistics are not available, GC/MS probably still remains the most popular teaching tool worldwide forty years past its initial introduction to an analytical/organic undergraduate laboratory by M.L. Gross and his colleagues at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Increased emphasis on life sciences in chemistry research and instruction in recent years paved the way for adoption of other MS techniques in teaching laboratories, such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) MS. While the vast majority of published laboratory exercises aim at probing composition and structure of biopolymers, MALDI MS also enjoys popularity as a potent analytical tool for synthetic polymers and other macromolecules of abiotic origin. On the other hand, the utility of MALDI MS, its sister technique laser desorption/ionization (LDI) MS, and other in situ ion desorption MS techniques in forensic analysis has been recently evaluated by several groups with a particular emphasis on document forgery detection, although neither one has become a routine tool in fraud investigations as yet. Document forgery is an unfortunate byproduct of the human ability to produce written documents and is likely to be as old as the writing itself (with the earliest known examples dating back several thousand years ago ). It has been noted that no other instrument of crime is as prevalent in modern society as documents, with examples ranging from rather mundane falsification of checks and receipts to highstake forgeries of wills. Numerous highly publicized examples of suspected forgery are truly captivating due to either bizarre circumstances (e.g., the case involving two different forgeries of the same document presented by the two conflicting parties ), astronomical price tag (e.g., the case of the forged will of the late Hong-Kong billionaire Nina Wang ), or enormous societal impact (e.g., ink examination in the diary that eventually led to the downfall of vice-president Spiro Agnew in 1973 ). Above and beyond such highprofile celebrity cases, students can relate to the societal impact of document forgery through recently publicized instances of falsifying foreclosure documents in the wake of the 2008 real estate bubble burst. Presentation of the forgery case studies or generating mock falsified documents for laboratory work is easy and avoids the unneeded mental discomfort associated with presenting murder cases and other violent crimes, which may easily unnerve sensitive students and negatively impact the learning process.