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Lorna Dawson

Staff picture: Lorna Dawson
Environmental and Biochemical Sciences
lorna.dawson@hutton.ac.uk
+44 (0)844 928 5428 (*)

The James Hutton Institute
Craigiebuckler
Aberdeen AB15 8QH
Scotland UK

Lorna Dawson is a Principal Soil Scientist in the Environmental and Biochemical Sciences group at the James Hutton Institute, and has over 25 years experience in managing and conducting research in soil and plant interactions.

Lorna is the Programme Advisor for the Environmental Change Programme at the Scottish Government (2011-2016), reporting to the Directors' Executive Committee to ensure effective delivery of the Scottish Government Research Programme in 2011-16. In this role a workshop on climate change and carbon management was held at the James Hutton Institute Aberdeen. The report of the workshop and the presentations shown are available on the KnowledgeScotland website.

She has led research on the impact of tree colonisation of moorland on below ground carbon dynamics, on tracking vegetation contributions through time in peat, and on the use of soil indicators to ascertain change over time. Recently she has developed the application of soil organo-mineral markers in forensic investigations. She has published widely and regularly presents at national and international conferences, as well as contributing to local events and public talks. She is on the Editorial Board of the International Scholarly Research Network in Soil Science, is a visiting Professor at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and contributies to courses in the Department of Archaeology in the University of Aberdeen and also the Robert Gordon University. She has supervised over 15 PhD projects and has published over 70 refereed journal papers and book chapters.

Current research interests 

Lorna is head of the Hutton Soil Forensic team and collaborates on research projects with UEA, Portugal, Germany and in Indonesia. Lorna was Principal Investigator of a project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), developing tools for soil characterisation for use in forensics. This work involved collaboration with the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI) and the Northern Ireland Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Division, as well as various forensic experts in the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), forensic agencies and various police laboratories and forces throughout the U.K. In addition, she established, and was joint co-ordinator of an international Geoforensics network, funded by EPSRC, with members from six nations.

She is the Communications Manager on the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Initiative on Forensic Geology, and has coordinated sessions at the Crime Networks Meeting, London, 2007, 2008 and 2009, and has organised two major conferences on environmental and criminal soil forensics(SFI, 2007 and 2010) (The 3rd International Workshop on Criminal and Environmental Soil Forensics) and the International Network of Environmental Forensics. She has recently co-edited a book on Geoforensics (Springer, 2009). She is a trained expert witness and has worked as a soil specialist on over 25 cases. She is a Chartered Soil Scientist, and a council member of the Institute of Professional Soil Scientists.

She has considerable experience in knowledge exchange, is a member of the Scottish Government Knowledge Exchange Group, has developed many resources for schools and has just completed a sabbatical working for the BBC, advising on programmes such as 'Countryfile' and 'Silent Witness' and 'Vera'. She is responsible for developing many of the Institute's soil education resources,e.g. composting and is currently developing a suite of remote learning tools with Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and Crofting Connections, which was commended at the 2011 Scottish Annual Geography Teachers Conference. She recently won a Scottish Government grant to organise and perform in public debating events across Scotland, examining the interface between forensic science and fiction, which was awarded the best live science communication event. She has also worked with crime author Ann Cleeves to produce a Murder, Mystery Pack to be distributed to libraries to run public events.

Bibliography 

Lorna's highlighted publications

  • Independent techniques for the forensic characterisation of river beaches., Carvalho, A.; Ribeiro, H.; Dawson, L.A.; Mayes, B.; Guedes, A.; Abreu, I., (2012) 6th European Academy of Forensic Science Conference, (EAFS), Towards Forensic Science 2, The Hague, Netherlands, 20-24 August, 2012, p189.
  • Soil as intelligence and evidence: learning experiences from research and casework., Dawson, L.A., (2012) 6th European Academy of Forensic Science Conference, (EAFS), Towards Forensic Science 2, The Hague, Netherlands, 20-24 August, 2012, p291. Keynote presentation, p137.
  • The James Hutton Institute research focussing on soils and the environment., Dawson, L.A., (2012) CSIRO, Floreat, Perth, Australia, 3 October 2012.
  • RESAS strategic programme of research., Dawson, L.A.; Bestwick, C., (2012) CSIRO, Floreat, Perth, Australia, 3 October 2012.
  • The preliminary investigation of animal sterols for the detection of decomposing bodies in soil., von der Luhe, B.M.; Dawson, L.A.; Mayes, R.W.; Forbes, S.L.; Fielder, S., (2012) 6th European Academy of Forensic Science Conference, (EAFS), Towards Forensic Science 2, The Hague, Netherlands, 20-24 August, 2012, p291.

Lorna's most recent publications

Articles of interest

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  • Email: info@hutton.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44 (0)844 928 5428
  • Craigiebuckler Aberdeen AB15 8QH Scotland
  • Invergowrie Dundee DD2 5DA Scotland

 

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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.