Professor Lara Frumkin (The Open University)

Lara is a Professor of Psychology at The Open University. She is a forensic, community and social psychologist who has worked in academia, policy and government conducting novel research on applying psychological principles to the criminal justice system (CJS). This work looks at where to best place CJS resources to serve public, particularly marginalised members of the public.

Dr Violeta Kapageorgiadou (The Open University)

Violeta is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at The Open University. She is interested in the legal consciousness of migrant populations, particularly regarding asylum rights and hate crime in the host country. In this project Violeta is bringing her experience in qualitative research skills with marginalised and vulnerable groups to explore the public trust in forensic science evidence in the criminal justice system.

Dr Clair Dempsey (The Open University)

Clair is a Post-doctoral Research Associate at The Open University. She is interested in Participatory Action Research (PAR), working with hard-to-reach/marginalised groups, women's health and health inequalities. She also has experience in developing and evaluating interventions and is a mixed-methods researcher. For this project, she has been organising and facilitating interactive focus groups. Clair will also be developing a tool/intervention based on the findings from all three work packages in the project. 

Professor Heather Flowe (University of Birmingham)

Heather is a Co-investigator on the project and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham.  Her research is centred on understanding episodic memory, particularly witness memory retrieval processes, using both experimental and applied approaches. She develops memory enhancing, broad reach, low-cost procedures that are integrated into legal systems around the world and is the Director of Global Engagement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, the Gender Equality Theme Lead at the Institute for Global Innovation, and the Co-Director of the Centre for Crime Justice and Policing (Victims and Trauma).

Dr Vincent Hughes (University of York)

Vincent is a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Speech Science in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. His research interests are in the validation and testing of forensic speaker recognition methods (including automatic speaker recognition systems) and the application of the numerical likelihood ratio framework to speech evidence. He has also worked on developing a gamified jury-based experiment to test the performance of human listeners at speaker recognition, and their understanding of expert conclusions. He brings this experience, along with quantitative data science skills, to the Trust project and will be involved in examining the extent to which linguistic and phonetics affects public trust in forensic science.

Dr Emma Johnston (De Montfort University)

Emma is a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Biology at De Montfort University. She is an experienced forensic scientist with a background in DNA profiling and has worked both for the UK criminal justice system and internationally. Her latest research focuses on the role of forensic science in the identification of missing migrants.

Dr Maria Maclennan (University of Edinburgh)

Maria, Co-investigator on the project, is a Senior Lecturer in Jewellery and Silversmithing at the University of Edinburgh and is an award-winning interdisciplinary designer, researcher and educator, and TEDx Speaker. Her research interests concern the role of jewellery in forensic and criminal contexts, and the use of design in facilitating collaboration across diverse fields such as forensic science, policing, government, and education. She has previously held senior leadership roles across the public sector and civil service, including the Police Service of Scotland and Scottish Government.

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid (Dundee University)

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid of Dundee University is a Co-investigator on the project and Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS) whose 10-year mission is to provide a robust underpinning for the scientific evidence presented in our Courts. She is a Chartered Chemist and an authorised Forensic Chemist with specialisms including fire investigation, clandestine drug chemistry and explosives.  She undertakes forensic casework, primarily in fire scene investigation and has appeared as an expert witness for the Courts.

Dr Emmanuel Nsiah Amoako (University of the West of England)

Emmanuel, is a Co-investigator on the project, is a Senior Lecturer of Forensic Science at the University of the West of England with teaching and research experience in the interaction between forensic science and law. Inspired by the role and impact of forensic science on miscarriages of justice, Emmanuel's research focuses on improving risk mitigation in forensic evidence production and interpretation. Drawing from his background in Law (concerning forensic expert evidence and regulation of forensic science) and Forensic Science practice, Emmanuel has produced a range of academic and non-academic works that explore the relationship between regulation, quality, and public confidence in forensic science.

Dr Min Zhang (The Open University)

Min is a Research Associate at The Open University. She is a Human-Computer Interaction researcher who is interested in social computing and using human-centric approaches (qualitative and quantitative methods) to understand the problem space and user requirements and feed these to the design, development, and evaluation of socially responsible technology. In this project, Min is exploring the public trust in forensic science and forensic scientists in the criminal justice system (CJS) in the UK.