Cleaning up misinterpreted forensic evidence

An image showing Ruth Morgan

Source: Courtesy of Ruth Morgan

Ruth Morgan is on the case of incorrect court rulings

 In July, the World Economic Forum unveiled its annual list of the world’s 21 brightest scientific minds aged under 40. That list includes Ruth Morgan, director of the Centre for Forensic Sciences at University College London, the world’s first interdisciplinary forensic science unit dedicated to reducing miscarriages of justice.

Morgan doesn’t shy away from the notion that her discipline is in crisis, or the belief that many forensic techniques are unjustifiably treated as gospel in court cases. Her interest in misinterpreted evidence began during her doctorate degree at the University of Oxford, where she studied how geoscience techniques can help to detect crime. Working in the field since then, Morgan soon realised that most research has focused on establishing new, increasingly accurate techniques that can collect as much information as possible. ‘What’s ironic is that by doing that, we’ve ended up in a position where the interpretation of evidence becomes more of a challenge,’ she says.