As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
My parents were practical scientists, and they used their skills to solve real-world problems. Partly as a consequence of that, my overriding desire was to make a difference when I grew up.
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Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
I lead a team of people from different scientific, statistical and science communication backgrounds and we try to address some of the fundamental challenges in how science is used in the justice system. We work with police, researchers, lawyers, judges and the public. I also do forensic casework 鈥� my area of expertise is in investigating how and where fires start.
What鈥檚 the most exciting thing you鈥檙e working on right now?
We are working on the development of a global citizen science project that will help forensic scientists understand how materials transfer between surfaces and then persist on the surface they have transferred to. We have designed and tested universal experiments to build databases that will address these questions and will launch these globally in 2020. These are profoundly important issues that help us explain the relevance and weight of forensic evidence to our courts.
If you could send a message back to yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Work harder than everyone else and don鈥檛 be afraid to think differently.
Were you good at science at school?
Yes 鈥� and maths and woodwork, which is always a useful skill to have.
What achievement or discovery are you most proud of?
Proving that don鈥檛 wake children and then finding a sound that does. It sounds like a truck reversing, that intermittent beeping noise, followed by a female voice saying 鈥済et up, the house is on fire鈥�. Each sound is played for 10 seconds, repetitively. Most children wake with either the first beeping tone or when they hear the voice for the first time.
How has your field of study changed in the time you have been working in it?
We have been at the centre of a paradigm shift in forensic science. The situation before was that the only time judges and forensic scientists spoke to each other was in the courtroom. Now, the judiciary and forensic scientists work together. We speak about science in informal ways, exploring each other鈥檚 questions and perspectives, to gather a collective understanding of what science can answer and what it can not.
鈥淵our DNA could transfer to a weapon even though you have never directly touched it鈥�
Do you have an unexpected hobby, and if so, please will you tell us about it?
Not really 鈥� I am a workaholic.
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
I can make things out of wood and I can set a fire almost anywhere 鈥� two of the essential skills for building a shelter and keeping toasty warm.
If you could have a long conversation with any scientist living or dead, who would it be?
One is Michael Faraday, who wrote The Chemical History of a Candle and instigated the Royal Institution鈥檚 Christmas lecture series. Another is Florence Nightingale, who was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and made good use of infographics.
OK one last thing: tell us something that will blow our minds鈥�
We have very little understanding of how trace materials, such as DNA, transfer and persist from one surface to the next. If someone picks up a glass that you have handled and then they pick up a weapon and assault someone, your DNA could transfer to that weapon even though you have never directly touched it. We are undertaking research to understand whether this can happen and in what circumstances.
