Award Will Help Scottish Scientist AdvanceForensics Technique

Advances in fingerprinting are set to progress as a University of Abertay Dundee forensics expert is awarded a prestigious fellowship. Joanna Fraser, Teaching Assistant in Forensic Science, is one of the 100 recipients of this year’s Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship scheme which aims to broaden experience while bringing tangible benefits to UK society.

Joanna’s PhD focuses on fingerprinting and, in particular, investigating sophisticated techniques to reveal fingerprints on clothing through ‘vacuum metal deposition’ where metal vapour is deposited onto the material to establish whether prints have been left.

She is currently working in close consultation with the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) Forensic Services Dundee and the Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) on this method, which may even help determine a sequence of events in a potential crime scene.

“I am delighted to be awarded this fellowship which will allow me to gather invaluable knowledge and experience from some of the most important forensics experts throughout the world and, ultimately, play a part in the
future of forensics,” Joanna said..

Meanwhile, supervisor Professor David Bremner said, “I am absolutely delighted with this award to Joanna. This will give her an opportunity to see, at first hand, the ways that other forensic laboratories deal with similar evidence and hopefully the networking opportunities will lead to further advances in this area.”

The travelling fellowship will allow Joanna to visit worldrenowned experts in universities and police departments across the globe, and hopefully attend and present at an international forensics conference in Australia.

Following the death of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, thousands of people gave generously to a public subscription, which now funds travelling fellowships and bursaries at Churchill College, Cambridge. On their
return, applicants must demonstrate that their project is feasible and of real benefit to their community and the UK as a whole.