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Environmental materials like soils and pollen can be incredibly powerful at indicating specific locations in forensic investigations. Our research seeks to understand their physical, biological and chemical attributes and how these trace particulates behave in real-life scenarios: how long to they persist on clothing or vehicles and how to do they transfer between people and things?
Our research looks at the physical aspects of soil and sediments, such as studying the surface textures of individual grains of quartz. We also study the biological aspects, looking at organic profiling, and their chemical make up. As well as continuing research into how pollen grains can be used in forensic applications, we’re researching into the potential of diatoms, microscopic algae that are found in all water bodies.
Whether we’re studying the geological components or the mix of pollen grains in a sample, or the type of diatoms in a water body, this research is essential in creating an evidence base that can underpin forensic science.
Current research
- Physical approaches such as mineralogy and quartz grain surface texture analysis.
- Elemental chemical approaches.
- Biological approaches that address the organic profiles of samples using HPLC.
- Developing the use of diatoms and pollen as environmental indicators.
Research projects
- Developing suites of independent analytical approaches for forensic quartz grain surface texture analysis.
- Organic signatures for soil/sediment differentiation.
- Inorganic approaches for the analysis of soils/sediments and discerning mixed provenance samples.
- Forensic limnology: assessing the value of diatoms for forensic investigations.
- The role of geoforensic analysis for establishing the journey histories of illicit materials and IEDs.