Hannah: How long have you been a forensic botanist?
David: I have been a forensic botanist for over 45 years.
Hannah: What got you interested in this field?
David: My interest in forensic botany came directly from my former job. I was the Director of the Plant Identification and Information Services at the University of Florida. As such, I handled many thousands of requests for plant identification and other questions, such as: Is it poisonous? Can I eat it? Is it invasive? How big will it grow? What is wrong with it? Is it perennial or annual? and many, many more. Because I got very good at identifying the thousands of plants that came from Florida, the United States, and several other countries, often in bits and pieces, I was consulted by law enforcement when they had plants or fragments of plants as evidence.
Hannah: What kind of botany do you study? For example, limnology or palynology.
David: My field of botany is systematic botany (plant taxonomy). My expertise includes the naming of plants new to science. To be able to put a name on a new plant, my college degrees include all fields of botany because naming a new plant entails a review of all the extant knowledge about that plant and it's relatives. I am certainly not an expert in all those various fields, but I have enough knowledge to understand how that information affects the new plant. Also, since I was a student, much new knowledge and even new fields of botany have been discovered. This, of course, means that I must keep abreast of current research. Recently, I have written a book and an extensive book chapter (the first in forensic botany) to explain how evidence is collected and used. These treatments, in addition to various kinds of plants, include DNA, algae, pollen, lichens, mosses, fungi, and ecology.
I also spoke with Jane Bock, a forensic botanist and Professor at the University of Colorado.
Hannah: How long have you been a forensic botanist?
Jane: I started doing some forensic botany for homocide cases in the mid-1980's.
Hannah: What got you interested in this field?
Jane: A professor at the University of Colorado’s Medical School asked if I could tell what food plant cells might have been in the stomach of a young girl who was murdered near Denver. This man was an MD and taught pathology at the Med. School.
Hannah: What kind of botany do you study? For example, limnology or palynology.
Jane: I have three degrees in Botany, BA in Botany Duke University, MA in Botany from Indiana U. Bloomington, and PHD in Botany from Cal Berkeley. I taught for many years at the University of Colorado’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept. in courses such as plant anatomy, plant systematics, general botany, aquatic botany etc..
Hannah: What is your favorite part of being a forensic botanist?
Jane: My favorite part of being a forensic botanist is those special times when I realize I may be involved in helping to bring justice through the court systems here in the US and elsewhere.
Hannah: What is the most difficult part of this job?
Jane: I sometimes encounter and incompetence in our criminal justice system and this distresses me, although such instances are rare. But they include improper behavior from judges, defense and prosecuting attorneys, and expert witnesses who claim they know things they don’t know, including at extreme agents from the FBI.
Hannah: Would you recommend forensic botany as a career path for others?
Jane: I will always recommend forensic botany as a full time career or side line for those who know and love the subject matter of of botany, and there is a great need for such people.
Sources:
http://www.dwhallconsulting.com/
http://khkeeler.blogspot.ca/2014/09/forensic-botany-investigating-crime.html
David: I have been a forensic botanist for over 45 years.
Hannah: What got you interested in this field?
David: My interest in forensic botany came directly from my former job. I was the Director of the Plant Identification and Information Services at the University of Florida. As such, I handled many thousands of requests for plant identification and other questions, such as: Is it poisonous? Can I eat it? Is it invasive? How big will it grow? What is wrong with it? Is it perennial or annual? and many, many more. Because I got very good at identifying the thousands of plants that came from Florida, the United States, and several other countries, often in bits and pieces, I was consulted by law enforcement when they had plants or fragments of plants as evidence.
Hannah: What kind of botany do you study? For example, limnology or palynology.
David: My field of botany is systematic botany (plant taxonomy). My expertise includes the naming of plants new to science. To be able to put a name on a new plant, my college degrees include all fields of botany because naming a new plant entails a review of all the extant knowledge about that plant and it's relatives. I am certainly not an expert in all those various fields, but I have enough knowledge to understand how that information affects the new plant. Also, since I was a student, much new knowledge and even new fields of botany have been discovered. This, of course, means that I must keep abreast of current research. Recently, I have written a book and an extensive book chapter (the first in forensic botany) to explain how evidence is collected and used. These treatments, in addition to various kinds of plants, include DNA, algae, pollen, lichens, mosses, fungi, and ecology.
Hannah: What is your favorite part of being a forensic botanist?
David: My favorite part of being a forensic botanist is being able to help people with a problem. You will find that using your expertise, once you graduate, is very satisfying.
Hannah: What is the most difficult part of this job?
David: There are three parts of forensic botany that I find difficult:
1) Having plant evidence that either does not help with a case, or that can not be successfully analyzed in spite of the multiple approaches of investigation.
2) Dealing with the evidence in some types of cases and realizing how much damage (psychological and physical) has been done to someone, and
3) Working with lawyers, judges, and law enforcement who have zero background with plants and science and are unwilling to take the time to understand how the plant evidence can help their case.
Hannah: Would you recommend foresnic botany as a career path for others?
David: I have recommended forensic botany as a career path with several outstanding cautions:
Hannah: Would you recommend foresnic botany as a career path for others?
David: I have recommended forensic botany as a career path with several outstanding cautions:
a. To be really qualified, a masters degree or, usually, a PhD is required, to be able to interpret all of the possibilities from evidence.
b. Most importantly, there are no actual jobs for a forensic botanist. Employment would be doing something else, such as, my former and current jobs doing teaching, plant identifications, botanical research, and environmental surveys. Since I am not an expert in all botanical fields, I have called for help from researchers and teachers who are experts in the other fields.
c. Because so much background education is required, graduate school can take many additional years which can cost much money and take a large period out of a life, either of which may not be regained except with the satisfaction of doing something you really like.
I also spoke with Jane Bock, a forensic botanist and Professor at the University of Colorado.
Hannah: How long have you been a forensic botanist?
Jane: I started doing some forensic botany for homocide cases in the mid-1980's.
Hannah: What got you interested in this field?
Jane: A professor at the University of Colorado’s Medical School asked if I could tell what food plant cells might have been in the stomach of a young girl who was murdered near Denver. This man was an MD and taught pathology at the Med. School.
Hannah: What kind of botany do you study? For example, limnology or palynology.
Jane: I have three degrees in Botany, BA in Botany Duke University, MA in Botany from Indiana U. Bloomington, and PHD in Botany from Cal Berkeley. I taught for many years at the University of Colorado’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept. in courses such as plant anatomy, plant systematics, general botany, aquatic botany etc..
Hannah: What is your favorite part of being a forensic botanist?
Jane: My favorite part of being a forensic botanist is those special times when I realize I may be involved in helping to bring justice through the court systems here in the US and elsewhere.
Hannah: What is the most difficult part of this job?
Jane: I sometimes encounter and incompetence in our criminal justice system and this distresses me, although such instances are rare. But they include improper behavior from judges, defense and prosecuting attorneys, and expert witnesses who claim they know things they don’t know, including at extreme agents from the FBI.
Hannah: Would you recommend forensic botany as a career path for others?
Jane: I will always recommend forensic botany as a full time career or side line for those who know and love the subject matter of of botany, and there is a great need for such people.
http://www.dwhallconsulting.com/
http://khkeeler.blogspot.ca/2014/09/forensic-botany-investigating-crime.html
