RSE prizes for Dundee researchers

Professor Niamh Nic Daéid, Director of the University's Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS), has been awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh Senior Prize for Public Engagement.

Dr Paul O’Mahoney, a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant working within the Photobiology Unit in the School of Medicine and a graduate of the University, receives the RSE Innovator's Prize for Public Engagement for his work on the applications of physics in Photodynamic Therapy and Photodiagnosis.

The RSE is Scotland’s National Academy and the highly prestigious medals it awards recognise exceptional achievement in science, academia and public engagement.

Professor Nic Daéid has been awarded the RSE Senior Prize for Public Engagement for her work across the forensic science and judicial landscape, bringing science and law together in strategic interdisciplinary conversations to find common ground and to address together the challenges in the use of science in the service of justice.  

Professor Nic Daéid said, “I am honoured to be the recipient of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Senior Public Engagement medal. Having the opportunity to see things from the perspective of others, to understand their concerns and questions and to truly engage and communicate beyond disciplinary boundaries and across society is a privilege and so very important, today more than ever.”

Prof Nic Daéid leads an interdisciplinary team at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The LRCFS team work with practitioners from around the world, from the crime scene to the courtroom and including the public, to take a fresh approach to solve challenges with the use, interpretation, evaluation and communication of data, evidence and science within the justice system.

LRCFS has public engagement at its core and last year was awarded a Gold Watermark award in Public engagement from the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.