The Steering Committee on Forensic Science Programs ensures that ICMP receives expert advice on the scientific aspects of its activities, and evaluates relevant policies and working procedures.
The Steering Committee meets annually and has 11 members, who are experts in one or more forensic disciplines, collectively covering pathology, archaeology, anthropology, molecular biology, odontology, crime-scene management, bioinformatics and bioethics.
George J.R. Maat, MD, PhD, The Netherlands, Chairman
Dr. Maat is an internationally experienced biological anthropologist with particular expertise in paleopathology and recent and ancient skeletal variation. After initial studies on developmental anatomical topics, he became the inheritor of the department’s tradition in physical anthropology. Dr. Maat was active as a professor of anatomy in both Surinam and Kuwait and continued his anthropological studies in these countries. Presently, he is Director of Barges Anthropologica and he is active as a consultant in forensic anthropology for the Ministry of Justice.
Ingo Bastisch, PhD, Germany
Dr. Bastisch has been Deputy Head of the DNA laboratory at the Bundeskriminalamt since 1999. He completed his PhD on retroviral gene transfer to hematopoietic stem cells at Hannover Medical School. He is the Chair of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI). Dr. Bastisch was the German DNA coordinator in Thailand following the tsunami in 2004 and the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Sub-Committee of the Thailand Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) process.
Charles H. Brenner, PhD, USA
Dr. Brenner has been a world leader in calculation of statistical significance for DNA testing since 1977. He received his PhD in Number Theory from UCLA in 1984. ICMP uses his DNA software (DNA-VIEW) for assessing the significance of matches. This software is used in 50 laboratories in four continents. He is widely published in leading forensic science and human genetics journals on both DNA matters and paternity attribution. Dr. Brenner is actively involved as a consultant in aspects of the identification of the World Trade Center and Tsunami victims.
John G. Clement, PhD, Australia
Dr. Clement is an internationally experienced forensic odontolologist. He received his PhD in Human Anatomy and Morphology from the University of London in 1986. In 1999 he became Professor and Inaugural Chair of Forensic Odontology at the University of Melbourne. His current research interests include human rights abuses, human identification particularly in mass disasters, using various techniques including anthropology, dentistry, dental anatomy and variation, quantification of variation in the human face, age and sex related changes in skeletal anatomy and study of lip prints. Dr. Clement works and publishes actively on theoretical and practical aspects of human anatomy and has numerous publications in leading journals as a team member working in both areas.
John R. Hunter, PhD, UK
A pioneer in British forensic archaeology and a noted archaeologist, Dr. Hunter received his PhD from Durham University in Scandinavian glass in the mid 1970s. He has numerous books and publications to his credit, with an emphasis on landscape analysis, survey techniques and remote prospection. In the 1980s he began to promote the application of archeological methods at crime scenes and has been instrumental in the acceptance of forensic archaeology in police methods in the UK.
Bertrand Ludes, MD, France
Dr. Ludes is the current Director of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Paris: he was appointed to this position by the Chief of Police in September 2013. He was previously a professor of Legal Medicine, Director of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Strasbourg and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg. His main research areas are human DNA profiling (mitochondrial DNA, autosomal and Y chromosome STRs and SNP technologies) and Diatom research and analyses in drowning cases. Dr. Ludes is also the Vice President of the International Academy of Legal Medicine and the French Society of Legal Medicine. He was the co-founder of the genetic identification laboratory of the Institut de Médecine Légale de Strasbourg. Dr. Ludes holds both an MD and a PhD in molecular pharmacology.
Walther Parson, PhD, Austria
An expert in forensic molecular biology with an emphasis on mtDNA, Dr. Parsons received his doctorate in 1999 from the University of Innsbruck. He is Austrian representative on the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI). He serves on the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Legal Medicine. In 2004 Dr. Parsons received a prestigious scientific award from the German Association of Legal Medicine.
Mechthild Prinz, PhD, USA
A DNA expert with many years of criminal casework experience, Dr. Prinz is now an Associate Professor for Forensic Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Prior to this appointment she was serving as the Director of the Department of Forensic Biology of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in New York. In 2001, when the OCME was tasked with the examination and identification of all victims’ remains following the World Trade Center terrorist attack, she was one of the Assistant Directors in Forensic Biology. Her role during the identification effort was inside the laboratory as the validation and in-house testing supervisor, as well as outside the department through her participation in the selection and quality monitoring of contract laboratories. Due to the specific nature of the World Trade Center mass fatality, DNA was the primary mode of identification. At John Jay College of Criminal Justice Dr. Prinz is educating a new generation of forensic scientists in all aspects of forensic genetics and its intersection with crime scene processing and disaster victim identification.
Alex John London PHD, USA
Alex John London, PhD, is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Ethics and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His work focuses on issues of risk assessment in human-subjects research, issues of justice and fairness in international research, and non-paternalistic foundations for research regulation and oversight. Author of over 40 papers and book chapters, Professor London’s work on research ethics has appeared in Science, The Lancet, PLoS Medicine, Clinical Trials, The Hastings Center Report, and numerous other journals and collections. He has been commissioned to write papers for the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and for the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and he is currently a member of the Ethics Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). Professor London was elected a Fellow of the Hastings Center in 2011 and has received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. He is also co-editor of Ethical Issues In Modern Medicine (McGraw Hill), one of the most widely used and respected textbooks in medical ethics.
Guy Rutty, MD, UK
Dr. Rutty is a forensic pathologist who qualified as a medical practitioner from the Royal Free School of Medicine, London in 1987. In 1996 he took a specialist position in forensic pathology at the University of Sheffield. He is now Professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Leicester. He has twice served with the ICTY in Bosnia and Herzegovina on war crimes investigations and he is co-founder of Anil Aggrawal’s Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.
Doug Ubelaker, PhD, USA
Dr. Ubelaker is a senior biological anthropologist specializing in forensic anthropology and paleopathology. He is co-author (with Henry Scammell) of the influential “Bones: A Forensic Detective’s Casebook” (Harper) as well as the widely used “Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains” (with J. Buikstra) (1994).