Abstract
Dear Members,
Having been granted an extra year as your President by our Executive Council I am delighted to be able to send you all warm wishes of the season after a very successful year for our Academy.
In 2022, we look forward to a very special year for the British Academy of Forensic Sciences (BAFS), in which we will be celebrating our Diamond anniversary albeit slightly delayed by the pandemic. We therefore have a number of special events planned to celebrate this anniversary, and there will be a special ‘Diamond’ edition of Medicine, Science and the Law later in the year to mark the event.
My hearty congratulations go to Professor Andrew Forrester for his excellent work on the journal, which I am sure you will have noticed is going from strength to strength. We were particularly delighted to host the proceedings of the 43rd Congress of the Italian Society of Legal Medicine in Medicine, Science and the Law earlier in the year. 1 We have much to learn from the Italian ‘Unitarian’ vision of forensic medicine, pathology, and sciences, and we hope that the collaboration between forensic and legal medicine in Italy and the UK will continue to flourish in the years to come, as highlighted in the two articles below:
“The Italian holistic vision of forensic medicine and science” describes the multi-disciplinary collaboration of experts contributing to the criminal justice process in Italy, 2 whilst Professor Vanezis, in “Education and Training in the UK; Fit for purpose?”, highlights the fragmentation of forensic medicine into sub-specialities, a problem mirrored in analytical forensic provision across the UK. 3
Through our continued programme of lectures and conferences, BAFS can play a small part in bringing together the expertise of our members across each of our three disciplines – medicine, science and the law.
Last year we had several very successful on-line conferences, starting the year with our joint Royal Society of Medicine conference over three evening seminars, and finishing with the return of in-person events. Our Executive Committee (EC) member Leslie Millin gave an insight into issues encountered with inquests, and Paul Dainty, from the City of London Police, spoke on the difficulties encountered with digital forensics. The Friends’ Dinner was very well attended and a great success, as was the Lund lecture, with Keith Asman giving an excellent presentation on the Salisbury Poisonings at the wonderful Apothecaries’ Hall.
We have welcomed new members to our EC, and special thanks go to Jill Battley our new Treasurer who I am sure will secure and enhance our financial position. Johann Grundlingh has also joined us with new and exciting ideas for our direction going forward in terms of increasing our membership and embracing new opportunities.
The schedule of events for next year looks very promising. We begin in January with our joint Royal Society of Medicine conference on Female Genital Mutilation, followed by our Diamond Anniversary celebration at Middle Temple, with guest of honour Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick QPM. At Easter, we have Jo Millington speaking on Blood Pattern Analysis – she broke the record for on- line attendance with her pre-Christmas talk last year! Then, Neuroscience and the Law, hosted by our long-serving and much valued EC member Professor Michael Kopleman at Gray’s Inn, which will also be available via live stream.
I very much hope it will be possible to see many of you at these events. Thank you, members old and new, for supporting us through these difficult times.
Wishing you all a very happy New Year.
Warm regards,
Tracy Alexander