Professor of Forensic Genetics
Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Oslo
Norway

I joined the UK Forensic Science Service (FSS) in 1982. I began research into DNA in 1985, collaborating with Sir Alec Jeffreys of Leicester University. In the same year we published the first demonstration of the forensic application of DNA profiling. Since 2011, I have been Professor of Forensic Genetics at the University of Oslo Hospital, Norway.

In 1993-4 I led the team which confirmed the identity of the remains of the Romanov family, and disproved the claim of Anna Anderson to be the Duchess Anastasia.

I led the team that developed the first multiplex DNA systems specifically to be used in the UK National DNA database in 1995, which was adopted throughout Europe and beyond. In 2000, I developed the LCN method.

I have published more than 250 peer reviewed papers, cited more than 26,000 times, in the scientific literature and two books entitled “Misleading DNA Evidence: Reasons for Miscarriages of Justice” and “Forensic Practitioner’s Guide to the Interpretation of Complex DNA profiles”.

I am head of the ISFG DNA Commission
Past chair of the ENFSI steering group on methods, analysis and interpretation
Winner of the scientific prize of the ISFG (2013)