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S.07-84

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Senate Committee on University Priorities

Memorandum

TO:

Senate ?

FROM:

John

Chair, SCUP

Vice PresidenAcademic

RE:

Centre for Forensic Research

DATE:

June 19, 2007

(SCUP 07-26)

At its May 30, 2007 meeting SCUP reviewed and approved the proposal for the creation

of the Centre for Forensic Research. This Centre will be a Schedule A Centre within the

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Motion

That Senate approve and recommend to the Board of Governors the creation of

the Centre for Forensic Research as a Schedule A Centre within the Faculty of

Arts and Social Sciences.

end.

M. Skinner, D. Burley

SCUP 07-26

0 ?

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

MEMORANDUM

OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT, RESEARCH

TO: Sarah Dench, Secretary

FROM: ?

B. Mario Pinto

Senate Committee on University

Vice-President, Research

Planning (SOUP)

RE:

Centre for Forensic Research

DATE:

May 9, 2007

Attached is a proposal from Dr. Mark Skinner, Department of Archaeology for the

establishment of the Centre for Forensic Research as a Schedule A Centre.

The Governing Committee for Centres and Institutes recommends that the Centre be

granted approval by SCUP. Once approved by SOUP, the proposal is to be forwarded to

Senate, followed by submission to the Board of Governors.

Governing Committee:

/ Dr. John H. Waterhouse

Nice-President, Academic and Provost

Dr. B. Mario Pinto

Vice-President, Research

Attachment

C: ?

M. Skinner, Department of Archaeology

D. Burley, Chair, Department of Archaeology

J. T. Pierce, Dean, FASS

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Office of the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

MEMORANDUM

To: ?

From: ?

Subject: Proposal: Centre for

Forensic Research

Date: ?

April 19, 2007

John, attached is a proposal for the creation of a Centre for Forensic Research

(Schedule A) to occupy the new facilities in the ASSC1 building.

The Centre is a timely and ambitious undertaking that will strengthen Forensic

research and training at SFU by bringing together leading edge researchers in a

state-of-the-art facility. While the core of the research team will be comprised of

members from Archaeology and Criminology, there will be important links to

members of Bioscience and microbiology, as well as the professional police

community. Moreover, the Centre will have strong links to other research

centres within FASS including ICURS, the Criminology Research Centre, the

Mental Health, Law & Policy Institute and the Centre for Restorative Justice.

Lastly, the proposed Centre is an acknowledged component of the University's

Strategic Research Plan. I consider this initiative to be one of the most important

vehicles to promote interdisciplinary research within both FASS and the larger

M. Skinner, Dept. of Archaeology

D. Burley, Chair, Dept. of Archaeology

R. Gordon, Director, School of Criminology

0 ?

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY

BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA

CANADA V5A 1S6

Telephone: (604) 29I-471/3135

Fax: (604) 291.5666

e-mail: mskinner@sfu.

Re: Centre for Forensic Research (Proposal)

Please find enclosed our Proposal for a Centre for Forensic Research and a Proposed Constitution.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Skinner, PhD, D-ABFA

Full Professor of Biological Anthropology

cc. file

:3.

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

Centre for Forensic Research

CONSTITUTION

1. Statement of Purpose

The objective of the Centre is to provide a centre for research and training to integrate students and

scholars locally and internationally to develop new applications of forensic science to solving crimes,

identifying victims, exonerating the innocent and convicting the guilty.

Governance

2a. The Centre for Forensic Research shall be governed in accordance with University policies including

R.40.01, CENTRES AND INSTITUTES. If this document and University policy differ on any issue,

University policy shall prevail.

2b.

The Centre for Forensic Research is a Schedule A Centre (R40.0 1, page 2) and comes under the direct

authority of the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences. The Dean shall be the Administrative Officer

responsible for the governance and budgetary accounts of the Centre.

2c. The Centre for Forensic Research is housed in ASSC1 within the Department of Archaeology and the

School of Criminology.

3. Appointment of Director(s)

The Director(s) of the Centre shall be appointed by the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences with

advice from the Centre for Forensic Research Steering Committee. Term of office for the

Director(s) shall normally be for three years.

4. Internal Governing Procedure

4a. The Centre shall be governed by a Steering Committee consisting of the Director(s) of the Centre for

Forensic Research; three forensically-active SFU faculty members drawn from Archaeology,

Criminology and Science; the Chair of the Department of Archaeology; the Director of the School of

Criminology; and a representative from the Dean's Office. Lab Manager: Ex officio.

4b. Named members will be appointed by recommendation to the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences from

the Director(s). Appointments shall be for a three year term.

4c.

The Steering Committee shall be chaired by the Director(s) of the Centre. Meetings will normally take

place once a term.

4d.

There shall be an Advisory Group consisting of interested persons, from the local and international

communities, such as forensic scientists of renown, the Office of the Chief Coroner, RCMP, other Police,

bio-ethicists, and members of the Legal Profession. Meetings will normally take place once a year.

5. Associate Members of the Centre for Forensic Research

The Centre may include interested Associates, from both within and outside the University Community,

including individuals linked to the Centre through projects and other activities which the Centre sponsors

and supports. Associate member status is proposed by the Director(s) and approved by the Steering

Committee.

1-i.

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

Proposal: Centre for Forensic Research (CFR)

Accompanying this proposal is a Draft Constitution

Prologue

Simon Fraser University has been a leader in the field of forensic science since the 1970's

and was one of the first universities in North America to offer forensic entomology,

forensic anthropology, and forensic archaeology as a service to police and coroners

provincially and nationally. Arising from the challenges of casework, we have found it

necessary to conceive and conduct research to assist in the determination of identity,

elapsed time since death and circumstances surrounding death. Individual forensic science

practitioners at SFU are at the forefront of research in these areas. We are now proposing

a Centre for Forensic Research (CFR), uniting the research initiatives of several forensic

scientists from Simon Fraser University, which will have a physical home within the new

ASSC1 building. The Centre bridges the Departments of Archaeology and Biosciences

plus the School of Criminology. In structure and function, the CFR will be the only such

facility with concentrated research expertise in Canada and the first of its kind in the

world.

SFU's goal is to be the most research-intensive comprehensive university in Canada. This

. ?

requires administrative vision and support services to sustain strong individual

researchers and multidisciplinary research teams, as well as collaborative research

initiatives. The proposed Centre for Forensic Research exemplifies this type of initiative,

which is designed to enhance and expand existing research capacity.

The benefits to SFU are clear: research excellence that is demonstrably useful to all

members of society in their everyday lives.

Objectives for a Centre for Forensic Research

Forensic science is the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are

enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system. Our material for study includes

physical evidence from bodies and scenes, as well as contextual evidence from the

environment; ranges in scale from microscopic to global; and is accessed through

scientific methods and instruments. The information that forensic scientists provides

helps law enforcement agencies to focus their investigations, identify victims and

suspects, eliminate non-suspects and help secure convictions. The challenge of

identifying victims, perpetrators and perpetrator behaviors can be met by innovative

research techniques.

Our fundamental objective is to create an international destination for forensic

researchers at all levels that will promote ongoing progress in answering society's needs

for stability despite criminal behavior leading to death. The proposed Centre is a timely

. research initiative with the mandate to focus on the development of new methodologies

and techniques. Police laboratories must, perforce, use tried and true methods in order to

satisfy legal requirements; therefore they find it difficult to conduct needful research.

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

Given our close collaboration with death investigative and police agencies we can assist

with developing new responses to their needs. Our own considerable casework often

suggests new research challenges to which we can respond.

Another objective of the CFR is to attract and train senior graduate and post-doctoral

students in a range of forensic disciplines. The CFR will not only train the best and

brightest of these students in specific disciplines such as biological anthropology, DNA,

botany and entomology, but will also allow students to research areas that cross all these

disciplines in a unique academic environment. We anticipate not only increased and

expanded traditional graduate training but also a cohort-based graduate program in forensic

studies which would include not only the sciences themselves but a much richer

environment that will include law and international human rights. With worldwide

attention being drawn to large-scale human atrocities, it is clear that there are many highly

experienced international scientists who have not had the opportunity for such

advanced training in their own countries. The formation of the Centre will allow us to

bring to SFU such scientists who will not only benefit from the research and training at

SFU, but will also greatly enhance the learning experience of domestic students who will

learn from these experienced field workers.

A third objective is to promote casework sharing electronically, not only for case

resolution and professional advancement nationally, but to nurture new insights on how

such cases can be resolved in the future. Our current experience with a cohort of graduate

students, drawn from a wide geographic and pedagogical range, who share new cases,

shows how wonderfully stimulating and innervating such a shared intellectual exercise

can be. An extension of the strategy of case sharing practiced here will be to share cases

globally via the WEB and digital imagery with forensic scientists anywhere. This will

meet the historical problem of uneven standards of practice and the slow pace with which

many forensic researchers can build up their expertise.

A fourth objective is to attract funds to promote the introduction into Canada of forensic

techniques being developed elsewhere. The creation of the CFR will provide a means and

focus to attract paid casework and funded research. A large problem for us at present is

that remuneration for routine casework cannot cover the costs of an innovative, but very

useful technique being developed elsewhere in the world that we would like to use. We

need to develop such methods locally so that we can provide the best of -forensic science

methods to our communities; there is currently no centre in Canada that is tackling this

problem.

Strategic Research Plan at Simon Fraser University

The Strategic Research Plan for SFU specifically highlights the Centre for Forensic

Research (CFR), which has links with all five thematic areas of the SRP. Within the

Communication, Computation, and Technology theme, the CFR fits into the three sub-

themes of Collaboration and Visualization, Emerging Digital Technologies and Imaging

Science as noted above.

('I

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

The CFR ties in with the two sub-themes of Safety, Security, Criminal Behaviour, and

Forensic Studies, and Communities and Urban Sustainability. The CFR will build upon

SFU's already significant strength in the analysis of criminal behaviour and forensic

studies: the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies (ICURS) is one of three main

centres for environmental criminology, and is moving in the direction of computational

security and safety. In addition, further strength in the analysis of criminal behaviour and

forensic studies exists at SFU within the Criminology Research Centre, studying youth

crime, violence against women, and mental disorders, with related topics explored by the

Mental Health Law and Policy Institute and SFU's Centre for Restorative Justice. The

CFR will forge links with these SFU Centres.

In the third thematic area, Economic Organization, Public Policy, and the Global

Community, the CFR will inform public policy on domestic issues such as urban

planning and crime prevention; it is also expected to influence global policy as it pertains

to the investigation, analysis, and eventual legal prosecution of international human rights

violations and crimes against humanity. Researchers are concerned with policy

development, the rule of law and accountability, including the School of Criminology's

work on the justice system, and with the legal profession. The CFR's involvement with

the RCMP and forensic casework will provide additional stimuli and understanding for

forensic research, law, police procedures, and criminal investigations.

. ?

The proposed CFR also fits into the fourth SRF thematic area on the Environment. Illegal

poaching and trafficking in animal parts is considered by the World Wildlife Fund to be

the second most profitable criminal activity in the world (after drug dealing). Forensic

DNA analysis, entomology, and anthropology are vital for investigating and eventually

prosecuting poaching cases. For example, techniques developed at the CFR DNA lab will

be readily applicable for accurate identification of protected species from modified

animal products. Palynology has also been used to identify past environmental change,

such as earthquakes and landslides, thus helping to understand the past and predict future

events. Forensically, such paleo- environmental investigations have been used in court to

support First Nations oral histories and associated land claims issues. Research at the

CFR on critical identification of pollen and spores will benefit such environmental

studies, as well as generate new identification protocols for forensic research. Fifth, the

research to be carried out by the CFR fits clearly within the SRP's health theme. The

health and safety of society is of paramount concern in the proposed research activities of

the Centre. Coordinating research with the coroner's office, for example, plays an

important role in the prevention of future deaths by understanding how specific deaths

under investigation occurred. Similarly, research into human tracking contributes to the

Population and Health sub-theme, since pollutants will be used as markers in human

and animal proxy tissues for tracking. Lastly, on the theme of health, the VENUS

project— a major CFI funded project - on oceanography will be crucial for study of the

marine environment and crucial to the CFR in terms of research on drowning and marine

body disposal.

q_1

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

Faculty and Associate Faculty Involvement with the Centre

Principal Investigators

Dr. Gail Anderson, Associate Professor and Assoc. Director, Criminology

Dr. Lynne Bell, Associate Professor, Criminology

Dr. William Davidson, Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Dr. Rolf Mathewes, Professor, Biology and Associate Dean of Science

Amy Mundorff, Doctoral Candidate, Archaeology

Dr. Mark Skinner, Professor, Archaeology,

Dr. Dongya Yang, Assistant Professor, Archaeology

Associated Investigators

Dr. Owen Beattie, Professor, University of Alberta,

Dr. Ron Fourney, Section Head, Biology, RCMP

Dr. Bill Haglund, Physicians for Human Rights, Seattle, WA.

Dr. Dean Hildebrand, Director, Forensic Sciences Program at BCIT

Dr. Richard Lazenby, Professor, Anthropology, UNBC

Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe, FRSC, Professor and Tier I CRC Dept Biology,TJVIC

Expenses related to Simon Fraser University

Income:

Research contracts will be sought from the Attorney General Department, the RCMP

(nationally and locally), Coroner's Office, Municipal and City Police. Case-related

research will be funded by individual law firms. In addition, routine case work is funded

by the Office of the Chief Coroner and generates revenue for small equipment and small

supplies. The usual funding sources (NSERC, SSHRC, MRC) have been and will be

approached for funding. These sources will provide funding for equipment, materials and

technical assistance.

Costs

Personnel

Staff positions include:

one technical lab manager position

one clerical support position

one full-time technician. Ultimately, two will be required to deal with

instruments which are located in the CFR building in ASSC 1.

These staff will provide core administrative and operational requirements for the

infrastructure for the CFR. A senior full-time manager is required to administer the day-

to-day operations of the Centre including administration of the operating and equipment

budget, development of operating protocols and procedures and supervision of the

technical staff. Two technical staff members are required to maintain existing and

anticipated major equipment items including the scanning electron microscope,

radiography lab equipment, mass spectrometers, DNA lab equipment and equipment

installed in the autopsy laboratory. The technical staff will also advise and assist

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

researchers in the use of the equipment, schedule and perform preventive maintenance,

and outfit and stock materials and supplies for the labs.

Supplies

The materials and supplies budget involves costs associated with maintaining the major

and minor laboratory instruments in an operational state for the researchers in the Centre.

The technical staff will maintain a store of parts and supplies for the equipment including

electrical switches, illuminator bulbs, fuses, high vacuum system parts, lubricants and

oils, gases, and tools and equipment for working on the equipment. There will also be

expenses for maintenance operations conducted in the CL2 Autopsy including

sterilization chemicals, personnel safety equipment and disposal of contaminated waste

generated while servicing and maintaining the laboratory equipment.

Maintenance and Repairs

The CFR will house a number of complicated and sensitive laboratory instruments and

equipment including existing and anticipated equipment including the scanning electron

microscope, mass spectrometers, radiography equipment, gene sequencers and a number

of precision balances and microscope. Funds are required to cover the expenses incurred

for the regular maintenance and servicing of the equipment and repair costs in the event

of equipment malfunction, after the extended warranties and service contracts have

expired. As the equipment and instruments in the Centre age it is anticipated that major

S ?

repairs will occur with more frequency, making it necessary to allow for an annual

incremental increase in the repair budget.

Infrastructure Requirements:

The CFR has a physical home in the new ASSC1 building. Fundamentally it includes the

following spaces, most of which have built-in equipment (sources to obtain additional

equipment are being sought).

Facult y

of Arts and Social Sciences Space

Administrative Offices: Director, General,

Lab Manager, Graduate (2), Meeting

Walk in cooler, change rooms

Centre for Forensic Research (March 2007)

Summary

The Administration at Simon Fraser University has already committed considerable

resources, in terms of logistical, equipment and structural needs, to forensic studies by

individual scholars. We are proposing a Centre for Forensic Research to enhance

collaborative research among forensic scientists from Biosciences, Archaeology and

Criminology and to create a centre of training and research to attract the best up and

coming forensic students as well as established scholars to come to SFU. We will provide

an enhanced degree of response to case work and draw upon these challenges to guide

our research plans so as to best benefit local and non-local communities.

10.

U Library

05/07/2007 12:23 PM

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Library Assessment for the

Centre for Forensic Research

May 4, 2007

This is the Library's report on the proposed Centre for Forensic Research.

The SFU Library supports the establishment of this Centre as outlined in the proposal. The SFU Library is actively

collecting monographs in the area of forensic research. Our journal holdings may need to be updated in order to

adequately support this centre.

The SFU library provides access to the following journals that will useful in supporting the research needs of this Centre:

American journal of forensic medicine and pathology

British journal of forensic practice

Digital investigation

Forensic science international

Forensic science review

International journal of legal medicine

Journal of forensic sciences

Journal of the forensic science society

atory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP

ce & justice

Suggested titles to acquire:

American journal of forensic psychiatry

$101

Forensic science abstracts $2,163

Journal of forensic identification $202

Journal of investigative medicine $368

Medicine, science, and the law $155

Wound ballistics review

$57

Cost of above titles: $2,996

The above titles are suggestions only. The library would base subscriptions on recommendations of faculty associated

with this Centre.

Monographs

The SFU library is currently actively collecting in the area of forensic sciences. No further monograph resources

required.

Cost if any additional subscriptions are required by centre faculty: $2,996

Maintained by: Megan Crouch [mcrouch(sfu.Ca]

Content last modified: 2007-05-07 [YYYY-MM- DD]

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