World's first Forensic Art graduates display talent

The first graduates to pass through the University's new Masters courses in Forensic and Medical Art added their work to the vibrant mix of talent and creativity on display at this year's Dundee Masters Show in September.

Their work included the reconstructed face of an Egyptian mummy, new portraits of 18th century Dutch criminals, and a surgical training model for cancer surgery.

The MSc in Forensic and Medical Art courses, delivered jointly by Media Arts and Imaging and the School of Life Sciences, is the only one of its kind in the world.

'I am delighted to see our first cohort of graduates come through the course with such an interesting and varied range of projects,' said course convenor Greg Mahoney, who worked as a forensic artist in the Boston Police Department for more than 20 years prior to his move to Dundee.

'They will leave as the most highly qualified new practitioners in this field. I know many professionals, myself included, who wish this course had been available at the start of their careers.

'Our work crosses all sorts of boundaries, from current criminal investigations to delving into history, and from developing facial recognition software to, as we see in the Masters Show, developing a new surgical training model,' said Senior Lecturer Dr Caroline Wilkinson.

'The combination of forensic science and art is one which has fantastic potential - the sort of potential we are seeing realised by our students.'

Sarah Shrimpton's project has seen her carry out facial reconstruction work on an unknown Egyptian mummy while Nigel Cockerton has produced new facial depictions of a trio of 18th century executed Dutch criminals, allowing comparisons with portrait sketches done at the time.

Hilary Sturrock and Morag McLean have both worked on facial recognition projects, developing new software techniques and analysing how we identify faces. Jane Wood has produced a new working model for teaching and developing new techniques in colo-rectal cancer surgery.

The MSc in Forensic and Medical Art courses welcomed its second cohort of students in September, doubling in size to approximately ten postgraduate places.