Professor Lorna Dawson wins Corporate INTL Soil Forensic Expert Witness of the Year award

Lorna Dawson

"I am delighted to have been awarded this prestigious award. It reflects the importance and high quality and rigour of our forensic work, integrated across our soil, botany, geography and chemistry disciplines, from attending and advising at crime scenes, through accredited analysis, evaluation of data and to the presentation of evidence in court as expert witnesses"

Professor Lorna Dawson, Head of Soil Forensics at the James Hutton Institute, has been recognised as Soil Forensic Expert Witness of the Year in the Corporate INTL 2021 Global Awards. 

The awards are the result of an extensive review, drawing insight from business leaders throughout the world and featuring tens of thousands of nomination forms sent in by readers of the magazine. After the shortlist stage, a panel of judges formed by leading individuals from Corporate INTL’s subscriber base from each continent determined the award winners.

Professor Dawson has more than 30 years’ experience in managing and conducting research in soil and plant interactions, in particular its application in the criminal justice system. She is an honorary professor in Forensic Science at Robert Gordon University, contributing to lecture courses as well as working with the Universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Edinburgh. She is also SEFARI Adviser on the Scottish Government’s (RESAS) strategic research programme 2016–2021 and is also SEFARI Gateway Knowledge Exchange Lead for Environment.

Among her other leading casework, Professor Dawson developed the application of soil organo-mineral markers in forensic investigations, and was Principal Investigator on a research project funded by the EPSRC (SoilFit), developing tools for soil characterisation in forensics and an aligned KE project (GIMI).

Professor Dawson commented: "I am delighted to have been awarded this prestigious award. It reflects the importance and high quality and rigour of our forensic work, integrated across our soil, botany, geography and chemistry disciplines, from attending and advising at crime scenes, through accredited analysis, evaluation of data and to the presentation of evidence in court as expert witnesses.

"We pride ourselves on assisting law enforcement officers and the courts in delivering justice."

Corporate INTL magazine has been published globally since 2005. The magazine's circulation base now exceeds over 70,000 copies each edition, with an average monthly readership over excess of 125,000 people worldwide. The readership is global, consisting of directors of mid-to-large-sized public and private businesses, private equity and institutional investors, investment and commercial banks, senior in-house legal advisers of leading businesses, professional corporate finance advisers, accountants and lawyers.