Professor Lorna Dawson CBE
BSc PhD
Head of Forensic Soil Science
Professor Lorna Dawson CBE is Head of the Centre for Forensic Soil Forensic Science at the James Hutton Institute and has over 30 years’ experience in managing and conducting research in soil and plant interactions, in particular its application in the criminal justice system.
She leads a team of experts in botany, mineralogy, soil physics, biology, eDNA and statistics in helping provide advice in search and trace evidence analysis and comparison.
She was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2018 for her services to soil and forensic science.
Her specialist areas of expertise include:
Agricultural, environmental, animals
Science and bioscience specialisms
Professor Dawson has reported and advised on over 150 cases and written over 100 expert witness reports, both in the UK and overseas. She has presented evidence in over 20 cases, including: WA v Rayney, Perth, Australia, 2012; R v Davies, North Wales, 2013; HMA v Sinclair, Livingstone, 2014; R v Halliwell, Bristol, 2016; HMA v Willox, Glasgow, 2020, HMA v MacDowell, Inverness, 2022; R v Southwood, Newport, 2023; HMA v Barnes, Edinburgh, 2023; HMA v Packer, Glasgow, 2024; and the Sheku Bayoh Public Inquiry, Edinburgh, 2022
She was awarded a Special Recognition award at the Pride of Britain 2017 awards ceremony, a fellow the RSA in 2017, a fellow of the RSE in 2018, and was awarded the RSE James Hutton medal for excellence in Earth and Environmental sciences in 2023. She is a trained facilitator, regularly teaching on university courses, training police forces in crime scene sampling and she chairs several stakeholder groups, is a science communicator, a STEM Ambassador, and regularly contributes to crime novels and award winning films, television such as Expert Witness, David Wilson’s Crime files and at public events such as University Challenge and the RI Christmas Lecture 2023 on forensic science.
Professor Dawson provided written evidence in the House of Lords inquiry into Forensic Science in 2019 and oral evidence to the Westminster inquiry into Forensic Science in September 2023.
Click here to view her CV.
