What lies beneath

Marie Morelato is an international student, from Switzerland, completing a PhD in forensic science. Claude Roux is the Director of the Centre for Forensic Science and one of Marie’s PhD supervisors. They reveal why forensics is at a crossroads and how research at UTS is helping to make crime investigation easier.

Marie Morelato
I first came to UTS as an exchange student from the University of Lausannein 2007 – Lausanne is very selective about their collaborations and UTS was the only exchange program offered. I stayed here for one year and did my first year of masters, then went home. I came back in 2009 because I really liked the lifestyle and I had the opportunity to do a research project at UTS with the Australian Federal Police (AFP). I was developing new techniques for gunshot residue detection. I really enjoyed the team I worked with, and I love Australia, so when I went back home I applied for my PhD at UTS.

I started my PhD in April 2011; it’s about the use of drug profiling in an intelligence-led perspective. When a seizure is made by the AFP, there are a lot of techniques used to profile the samples. I’m looking at how we can reduce the number of techniques in order to achieve quick, but still informative, results that can be used proactively. For my research it’s important to investigate if people from the AFP will use the results of my research in the field, because if it’s not used, then it’s not useful.

Claude and I both come from Switzerland so every time we speak with each other we speak French. We switch quite easily, and sometimes we speak English without realising it, but speaking French is easier, it makes more sense. If other people are around though, we’ll speak in English.

Obviously Claude is really busy, because he’s the Director of a research centre, but he’s a great supervisor. You have to have a good supervisor, because that’s the main person in your project. Doing my PhD with the AFP is also a good opportunity to make contacts and I really wanted a PhD that can be practically implemented. Working with people in the field is the best way to achieve that.

There’s a lot of project collaboration with Lausanne too. My external co-supervisor is Olivier Ribaux; he’s a Professor at the Institut de Police Scientifique in Lausanne and he came to UTS last semester for his sabbatical. Alison Beavis is my UTS co-supervisor and Mark Tahtouh is my AFP co-supervisor. It’s incredibly important, especially in forensic science, to have these collaborations because at the end of the day it’s a practical field. If you don’t have collaborations, like with the AFP or NSW Police, then you don’t know how your project will benefit the field. It’s good for them as well because sometimes they are a bit reluctant to get involved with research, but if they see the results they may change their mind. It works both ways.

I miss my family – my parents and brother and grandfather – and my friends, but it’s good here. The atmosphere in the office is really good and I have lots of nice colleagues – there’s about 10 other PhD students I work closely with. After I finish my PhD I think I want to stay in Australia, I don’t want to stay in academia. To work for the federal police, or something like that, would be great.

Claude Roux
UTS has an MOU, or memorandum of understanding, for student and staff exchange with the Forensic Science Institute within the School of Criminal Sciences at the University of Laussane; and Marie was part of this. There are only a handful of places around the world where you have the sort of forensic science research we do. Lausanne started more than 100 years ago, so they have the history and culture, and are one of the world’s leaders. UTS started in forensic science in 1994, so this is no Lausanne, but we’re not far off; recent benchmarking has shown we are probably in the top three or four universities offering a full suite of teaching and research programs in forensic science in the world.

Over the years forensic science has become more and more driven by the court process – it must be completely foolproof, with minimal risk of uncertainty, bias and subjectivity. One hundred years ago, people were much more focused on the investigative and intelligence stage. So we’re at a crossroads in forensic science. Projects like Marie’s are important because they show the expanding role of forensic science and are a move to interdisciplinary research and she may assist to deliver a policy response to current financial and organisational challenges. She’s not seeing forensic science as only a dimension of the court process, but more broadly as a vehicle for security. 

It’s not a one-off project, we’ve got a whole portfolio of developing research in the intelligence area. We’ve got another PhD student, who’s an employee of the AFP and a UTS graduate, who’s working on other aspects of illicit drugs. A third student is working with the AFP on problems of volume crime (for example, break and enters and vehicle thefts) and how forensic science can be used more efficiently. That particular project is supported by an ARC Linkage grant with the University of Tasmania, AFP, National Institute of Forensic Science and others. So, while Marie’s PhD project is a very important project, and a very well contained project for her, at the same time it’s part of a whole strategy to develop capabilities in this area.

To me, a PhD is a personal journey. At the beginning I’m always happy to give some broad direction, some ideas for a topic, but I think past a certain level, identification of the actual project is part of the learning experience. Beside pure academic tasks like thesis and paper reviews, the role of the supervisor is to guide the student, find solutions in the hard times and provide networking and development opportunities. Marie’s a great student; she’s one of eight PhD students I’m formally supervising. Her research project is supported by a UTS Partnership Grant in collaboration with the AFP. We’re now in discussions with our industry partners to develop that into an ARC Linkage grant application.

Forensic science is still a young field that has to be shaped and I think that’s really what I find fascinating. Ultimately, for a university of technology, it’s important that not only is the technology being developed, but you need to look at how this technology is being integrated into the problem solving process. It doesn’t make sense to develop a lot of fancy methods if it takes a long time to get results and nobody uses them.