Secrets of forensic science to be unveiled by Professor Dame Sue Black in Christmas Lectures
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World-renowned forensic investigator Professor Dame Sue Black will share the secrets of her work when she delivers this year’s Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution.
In a series of three lectures to be broadcast on BBC Four in late December, Inverness-born Dame Sue will reveal the real-life scientific detective process she uses to identify both the dead and the living.
With the public more fascinated by science and forensics than ever, she will highlight reveal why people should not believe everything they see in their favourite TV crime dramas.
Using stand-out cases from her remarkable career, she will explore the huge leaps forensic science has made, as well as some of its limitations, and what the future might hold – and she will reveal how real life can be far stranger than fiction.
Dame Sue, a former Inverness Royal Academy pupil, has played a leading role in some of the world’s highest profile forensic investigations, helping to identify the victims and perpetrators of conflicts and disasters, including the conflict in Kosovo where she was the lead forensic anthropologist to the British Forensic Team, and the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Operation.
In 2017, she led a forensic examination of headless remains in a casket at Wardlaw Mausoleum, Kirkhill.
The casket was thought to have held the executed Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, nicknamed The Old Fox but the examination revealed the remains were of a woman.
Dame Sue, president of St John’s College Oxford, said: “I’m looking forward to revealing the crucial but often unseen work of forensic investigators and to fuelling some young imaginations with this amazing area of science.
“As discussing and critically examining science is so important to its application in our lives, I’ll also be asking some challenging and thought-provoking questions about the future of forensic science, whether our identity, actually, is wrapped up more in our memories than it is in our bodies, and what that might mean for crime detection.”
Royal Institution director Katherine Mathieson was delighted that Dame Sue would lift the lid on such an important topic.
“Through the pandemic, the climate crisis and other significant challenges facing the world, we’ve really seen science in practice,” she said.
“We’ve witnessed the scientific process of researching and gathering evidence in action, seen scientific advances as they happen and scientific exploration as it’s done.”
Tom Coveney, BBC commissioning head of science, added: “No doubt viewers will be captivated by Sue’s insights into real crime scene mysteries and her provocative questions about the future of forensics.”
The lectures will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer between Christmas and New Year.
