Home / Education and Outreach / Courses and Lectures / Forensic Botany — Past, Present, and Future
Forensic Botany — Past, Present, and Future (Seminar)
Monday, May 25, 2009
12pm to 1pm
Seminar Details Rolf Mathewes will discuss the basic principles and history of forensic investigation using plants. He will share examples from a number of the British Columbian cases he has worked on, notably the Heather Thomas murder in 2000 and its subsequent court case, and will then discuss developments and potential for the future of forensic botany.
Lecturer Rolf Mathewes is currently a professor of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean of Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He received a BSc in Biology from SFU (1969) and a PhD in Botany from the University of British Columbia (1973). After a year of postdoctoral research in Cambridge, England, on the history of Caledonian pine forests in Scotland, he returned to British Columbia for a Faculty position at SFU. His research focuses on postglacial vegetation history and climate change in western Canada. In his academic career, he has been president of the Canadian Association of Palynologists and American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, and associate editor of the Canadian Journal of Botany and the journal Ecoscience. He has published more than one hundred scientific articles and co-edited a book on Haida Gwaii (2005) for UBC Press. His interest in forensic botany has increased over the past 20 years, since his first case in 1986, as a natural extension to his existing research. To date, he has worked on more than a dozen murder cases with the RCMP, VPD and municipal police forces, and is currently on the steering committee of the new Centre for Forensic Research at SFU, where he plans to explore the forensic potential of pollen and spore analysis in Canadian criminal cases.
Location At the Botanical Garden Reception Centre, near the main entrance (Directions to the Botanical Garden)
Cost Free
Please Note Bring a bag lunch. Coffee supplied. Please call 604-822-3928 or email the in advance to book a seat.
