"I have a colleague who has expertise in soil forensics, did a PhD on the mineral characterisation of soils’

We could do an elemental analysis and compare to the available soil and geochemistry databases...." so says Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) in a recent edition of the BBC's Silent Witness.

The colleague she is referring to is Dr Lorna Dawson, Head of Soil Forensic Science at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute.

The Institute is currently leading a number of high-profile projects looking at the potential for cutting edge scientific techniques to be applied to criminal investigations.

The GIMI network, also funded by EPSRC, aims to find ways in which new technologies can help in the forensic investigations of crime scenes, such as locating the graves of murder victims, uncovering buried items of evidence and helping to narrow down areas of search for the police.

The SoilFit project is funded through the EPSRC Crime Initiative to investigate the potential of advanced analytical methods in providing soil forensic intelligence to police investigations.

SoilFUN is a network of linked student projects aiming to create a UK wide urban-soils forensics database.

Soil Forensics International

We also organised the 2nd International Workshop on Criminal and Environmental Forensics, James Watt Centre, Edinburgh Conference Centre, Edinburgh, UK, 30 October – 1 November 2007

The 3rd International Workshop on Criminal and Environmental Soil Forensics takes place in Long Beach, California, USA, from 31st October 2010 to 4th November 2010.