I am an academic working in the field of Forensic Science and I have done so for more than 10 years. My areas of particular interest are fibres evidence, aspects of forensic chemistry and firearms evidence, data handling, and the evaluation of evidence. I have worked here at Staffordshire University since 1989. I am now the leader of the Forensic and Crime Science Subject Area, a department of 18 full-time academics. I am a member of the United Kingdom Forensic Science Education Group (UKFSEG). I serve on the Forensic Science Benchmarking working group.

I am currently the principal supervisor of two PhD students, one in the area of drug profiling, the other in the transfer and recovery of DNA evidence. I have successfully supervised seven other research students to the completion of their doctorates. The most recent of these, Dr Claire Gwinnett, undertook research into the use of inexperienced personnel in the analysis of synthetic textile fibres using polarised light microscopy for the generation of data suitable for the production of a synthetic fibres database. My previous research has been in the fields of cement chemistry and coordination chemistry.