What sort of person becomes a Forensic Chemist?

Successful prosecutions or defences based on forensic evidence are the end results of extensive teamwork by police, scenes of crime officers and pathologists as well as the painstaking scientific testing of crime scene samples in the laboratory. Sometimes tests are inconclusive. At other times they are routine and repetitive. With high caseloads, many different samples relating to many different crime scenarios will be being processed at the same time. Vital paperwork relating to avoidance of cross contamination and ensuring an unbroken chain of evidence has to be completed daily. The staple tasks of the forensic laboratory include identifying body fluids, DNA profiling, matching of human and animal hairs, and comparing textile fibres. Some staff may specialise in drug detection, insect evidence, ballistics, bloodspatter patterns, DNA or explosives. Forensic scientists have a tremendous responsibility to get the science right. If it's done wrong or in legally inadmissible ways, the ...  more