TILES Presented at the 23rd ANZFSS Symposium in Auckland

Associate Professor Roberta Julian, Dr Loene Howes and Dr Mithun Rajshekar joined other presenters at the 23rd ANZFSS (The Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society) Symposium in Auckland, on 18-23 September. The Symposium included a great range of key note and poster presentations, plenary sessions and fantastic exhibitors demonstrating their latest technology and management tools applied in Forensic Sciences.

At the Symposium, Associate Professor Julian delivered a key note presentation titled The economics and politics of forensic science practice: can we measure the effectiveness and efficiency of forensic science? And her second presentation was on The interfaces between science, medicine, law and law enforcement project - phase 2. Associate Professor Julian is the current President of the Tasmanian Branch of the ANZFSS, and was the lead CI in a 5 year ARC Linkage Grant with Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and the National Institute of Forensic Science (ANZPAA-NIFS) as industry partners.

Dr Howes delivered a keynote presentation titled Beyond expert opinion: inroads into effective communication about forensic science. In 2015, Dr Howes successfully completed her PhD research thesis on Communicating scientific expert opinion: What do forensic scientists say and what do police, lawyers, and judges hear? Currently, Dr Howes is Lecturer in Criminology (School of Social Sciences) and Researcher with TILES at the University of Tasmania.

Dr Rajshekar presented during the Odontology Session at the Symposium, and his presentation was on Validating a portable intra-oral 3D scanner as a tool for bite-mark analysis: a response to the 2009 national academy of science report. Dr Rajshekar is a PhD Candidate with TILES, and his research focuses on the Documentation of Animal Bite Marks through the Development of Animal Dentitions.