Forensics first for Miranda with West Yorkshire Police’s CSI team
Tue, 09 Sep 2014 09:24:00 BST
Forensics student Miranda Blackburn is the first to start a placement with West Yorkshire Police’s Regional Scientific Support Services
FORENSIC science students at the University of Huddersfield now have the unique opportunity to spend a year working with one of the UK’s leading crime scene investigation teams.
“This is a phenomenal coup for us,” says Dr Graham Williams, (pictured below) who is Senior Lecturer in Forensic Genetics at the University, where the School of Applied Sciences is a leading centre for teaching and research in the forensic sciences.
It has developed close links with West Yorkshire Police’s Regional Scientific Support Services (RSSS) and its CSI Training Manager, Louise Morgan (pictured below). This led Dr Williams to suggest that a year-long work placement could be made available to one of the most promising students. Louise Morgan developed the idea and the scheme has now been launched, with the first student to land the coveted placement about to embark on a stint with the RSSS.
Pictured right: Dr Graham Williams, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Genetics at the University of Huddersfield with CSI Training Manager, Louise Morgan from West Yorkshire Police’s Regional Scientific Support Services (RSSS).
She is single mother Miranda Blackburn, whose passion for problem solving and a determination to rise to new challenges led her to enrol for degree study at the University of Huddersfield. Now, as a forensic scientist in the making, she beat stiff competition to land the RSSS placement. She will now spend ten months working and learning alongside the West Yorkshire forensic experts, headquartered in Wakefield.
A passion for forensics
Dozens of students applied for the position and shortlisted candidates underwent a demanding selection process. Miranda, aged 39, who lives in Elland, near Halifax, impressed interviewers with her ambition and capacity for hard work.
It will form the placement year that is part of her BSc degree in Forensics and Analytical Science. During her period on secondment to the RSSS she will experience crime scene investigation at first hand and take part in projects that include an evaluation of a new form of fingerprint powder.
Then she will be back at the University to complete the fourth and final year of a degree course in which she has been scoring excellent grades – despite having left school in her mid teens without a single GCSE to her name.
Halifax-born, Miranda embarked on a working life in fields such as administration and bar work – including a period in Spain – and was a full-time mum for a spell. But when her daughter Shannon was established at school, Miranda took the opportunity to broaden her horizons via education. After a year at Calderdale College, she enrolled for a Foundation Degree at the University of Huddersfield, ensuring that she he had the scientific grounding she needed.
She then moved on to the BSc course and found it highly absorbing. She has enjoyed the laboratory work, using technology such as high performance liquid chromatography and learning techniques such as blood spatter analysis. Miranda has also discovered a passion for mathematics, which is vital for many aspects of forensic analysis.
In addition, she has learned that her stomach is strong enough for some of the more grisly aspects of crime scene investigation. Dr Williams has developed ties with colleagues in Romania and leads study trips to the country.
Miranda joined one of them and witnessed three autopsies: “I thought I would be the first to faint, because I am normally quite squeamish, but I was fine. It was so fascinating.”
Extraordinary opportunity
Her placement with West Yorkshire Police’s RSSS will aid her career goal to work in forensics.
“I would like to do crime scene investigation and specialise in an aspect such as fingerprint analysis, blood spatter, footprints or entomology.”
Dr Williams is delighted at Miranda’s achievement. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for her,” he said. “We work hard to ensure that our students learn relevant skills and gain suitable knowledge. This placement will substantially enhance Miranda’s employability when she graduates.”
He added that the link with West Yorkshire’s RSSS was a major new factor in encouraging forensic science students to choose Huddersfield.
