I came into forensics three and a half years ago when I made the decision to move to Canberra – I wanted to return to university, after completing half of a chemistry degree in the U.S., and the Forensic Investigation program offered here at CIT sounded like an interesting and unique opportunity. At the time, there were only two other field-based programs worldwide, in Scotland and Switzerland – and I’d had plenty of snow growing up in the mid West!

Unfortunately, after two months in the program here, I realised that field-based forensics was not for me. I remember the moment distinctly; I was examining a training scenario where the objective was to find the knife used to assault a police officer. The scenario was set up outdoors near a campfire and there were blood droplets in a trail, with several drops on the surface of a large rock. My classmates and I spent hours – literally – measuring the rock, drawing a careful diagram of the rock, triangulating the position of each of the droplets on the rock – and, realising our time was running out, gave the rest of the scene a rather perfunctory treatment. When our instructor came by to assess our performance, we had found no knife – but I held up a somewhat pointy stick from the campfire and said, “I don’t think it was a knife at all – I think it was this! It’s the only pointy thing here!”

Our instructor handled things as well as he could – he didn’t outright laugh at me – and walked over to the giant rock. The rock we’d spent hours detailing. The rock drawn in perfect scale on our crime scene diagram. The rock that we never, ever thought to turn over. He nudged the rock with his toe and the shadow receded to reveal the glint of a knife. “Oh, if you’d been out here another hour the sun would have shifted and you would have seen it,” he offered, trying to help us save face. It didn’t quite work; I could have nearly died of embarrassment.

Despite my immediate knowledge that I was not, nor would I ever be, a crime scene investigator, I chose to stick with the course, and overall it was a good decision. The small class size and friendly atmosphere meant I could count on my lecturers to help me develop my professional skills with personal attention. With their support, I was able to complete a research project of my own initiative, publish a journal article, and present my results at an international forensic science symposium, all before I graduated. I set my sights intently upon my goal – a job as a Chemical Criminalist, sticking evidence into machines and pressing buttons and getting answers – and worked solidly towards that. I am now studying my Honours in Forensic Studies at the University of Canberra, which allows me to perform research at the AFP with emerging technology and absorb a lot of industry knowledge by association.

As a current student of forensic science, I feel that I’ve entered the discipline at a very turbulent, dynamic, and exciting time. Thanks to the wealth of forensic science institutions, experience, and opportunities here in Canberra, I have been exposed to the future of forensic science, and it is a future of incredible technological advancement. The focus is shifting toward portable analytical equipment, such as the “lab-on-a-microchip”, and a more rigorous scientific treatment of all aspects of the science. Yet the best lesson I’ve learned from my studies and experiences so far is one that is so simple, it’s a wonder I needed to learn it at all: