Professor Sue Black, the University of Dundee’s world authority on forensic anthropology and human identification, has been appointed one of 28 new Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders.
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the scheme provides universities with additional support to attract science talent from overseas and retain respected UK scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.
The new award holders are working on a wide range of projects including radar-tracking the movement patterns of bees, assessing how polar ice sheets contribute to global sea level rise, and the development of machine learning for precision medicine.
Professor Black, director of the university’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification which was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education 2014, is a renowned expert in forensic anthropology.
“I am honoured to have received this prestigious research award, which recognises the importance of work that we have pioneered at Dundee to assist investigations into child sexual abuse across the UK,” said Prof Black.
“This is harrowing material to work with but the success that has manifested from the court room and translated into both guilty sentences by jury and change of plea, is incredibly rewarding.
“At present, over 80% of our casework in this area results in a change of plea which is both an inordinate saving to the court system but more importantly protects victims from the harrowing experience of giving testimony in court.”
The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that awards grants to support excellence in the fields of science, education and the arts.