a day in the life... Imtiaz Ahmad
Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry Anglia Polytechnic University
Featuring: Delta Joseph (15) and Katie Hollingsworth (16)
10.00
We met up with Imtiaz - or ‘Im’ as she told us to call her - in the university canteen, for a chat over morning coffee. She explained what we’d be doing and told us about her amazing career!
10.30
After our chat, Im took us to one of the science labs, where we were shown around some of the equipment used in forensic investigations.
Then she told us to get our white coats and rubber gloves on because we were going to be solving a forensic mystery for ourselves.
First, we were shown how to analyse chemicals (like these blue crystals) using a ‘flame test’. Im told us that all the metallic elements in the Periodic Table have different colours if you hold them in the flame from a Bunsen Burner, so burning a mystery substance can help you work out what it is...
Once we’d done the flame test, we tested the same chemicals again to find out even more about them …
Sometimes the tests had to be done several times to get a definite answer - Im says it’s crucial to test and re-test evidence, because in a courtcase, someone could get a life sentence based on your results…
And you need to keep careful notes of all the tests you do and the results!!
12.00
After all that hard work, it was time for lunch. Im introduced us to three PhD students who are studying forensics at APU, Joanne Kelly, Victoria Leeman and Laura Gregory.
The students were great company – and after lunch they showed us round the campus.
We checked out the careers library for ideas…
13.00
…and we even tried out sitting in a lecture hall… (but we sneaked back out just before the lecturer got there!)
We really liked APU - and Katie says she's definitely going to apply to come here when she's done her exams.
14.00
Im’s colleague, Darren Phillips, used to work for the Forensic Science Service. He told us lots of real-life stories about forensic investigations… and he warned us not to believe EVERYTHING you see on those TV programmes!
The labs are full of very fancy microscopes. This one's called a RAMAN MICROSCOPE, and it works by shining a laser onto the surface of a forensic sample…
15.00
Next door, another colleague Kevin Bright showed us the GRIM. That stands for the 'Glass Refractive Index Measurement' Machine!
This is used to examine glass from bottles, windows etc in various ways. Once you've got the results, you can compare them with what's in the national database of glass samples and hopefully identify where your piece came from...
16.00
Just before we left, Im, Darren and Kevin introduced us to ‘Morticia’. She’s not a real person - phew! - just a dummy ,modelling all the protective gear you’d need if you were working in a real forensics laboratory.
If you’d like to find out more about how to get into a forensics science, have a look here.
PS if you’re keen on forensics, check out Planet Science Whodunit and try some for yourself! (Interactive Feature).
Im's career so far...
Im says she loved both physics and chemistry at school and couldn’t choose which one to do when she left. So she hit on a good way of doing both by taking a degree in ‘Physical Chemistry’ at London University.
She went on to do a MSc at London University followed by a PhD at London University, Cambridge University and the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan!…. Then she went off to live in Japan where she worked with the National Space Development
Agency of Japan and the University of Tokyo. She loved living in Japan and stayed for four years - one of her favourite things was putting the telescope (that had been constructed in her lab) on the top of Mount Fuji! She says she still goes back every year.
After four years, she felt like a change, so she moved back to the UK, and worked with lasers at Cambridge University. She was still looking for an opportunity to apply her skills in another field and a job at Manchester University came up and she jumped at the chance to work on a novel method using plasmas to get rid of environmental pollutants. She also discovered that she loved teaching as well as conducting research…
… and that’s what brought her back to Cambridge to be a lecturer at Anglia Polytechnic University.
return to story
What exactly is 'forensic' science?
Forensic Science
It can be used to identify and convict criminals, for example by studying fingerprints, hair or DNA profiles. It can also be used to prove or disprove claims made by suspects about an incident. For example, if a suspect claims he was never at the crime scene, but unique fibres, debris or fungal spores turn up on the suspect’s clothes, possessions, or even in their ear wax (yep – it happens!) then police may be able to prove that the suspect is lying.
Locard’s Principle
An important concept in forensic science is that ‘every contact leaves a trace’. This is known as Locard’s Principle. Dr Locard worked in the Technical Police Laboratory in the 1900s and he said, “There is no such thing as a clean contact between two objects. When two bodies or objects come into contact, they mutually contaminate each other with minute fragments of material…” He said that the microscopic debris on our bodies and clothing was a “witness sure and faithful of all our movements and encounters”.
So there are clues everywhere - if only you know how to find them…
return to story
Our Forensic Investigation!
The investigation was called the ‘Chalkwell Mystery’.
The story is that a dead body’s been found in a ditch, and there are various suspects who could have committed the murder. Soil samples have been taken from each of their shoes, and it’s the job of the forensic chemist to work out who’s shoes have traces of chemicals that match those on the clothing of the body… The chemicals are all ‘salts’, which means they have two parts to them, a metal part, and a non-metal part. The salt you put on your food is only one kind of salt, but there are others too, and we need to identify the ones Im gave us to solve the mystery.
There are two tests that need to be done on all the salts
1. FLAME TEST:
When you burn each of the salts, the metal part of the chemical gives off a coloured flame. Each metal has a different colour, so you can use this test to work out what the metal part of your salt is…
2. TEST FOR THE NON-METAL PART:
Using other chemicals, it’s possible to work out what the other part of the salt is. First you put the salt into dilute nitric acid. If it fizzes, then it must contain carbonate. If it doesn’t, you test it with silver nitrate and barium chloride to work out whether it’s chloride or sulphate…
All a bit fiddly – but easy when you get the hang of it!
return to story
If you’d like to get into forensic science as a career, here are some tips from Im
She says:
It’s advisable to do CHEMISTRY and BIOLOGY at ‘A’ level (or at least some science of ‘A’ level standard.
Then there are three university pathways:
1. Do a Forensic Science degree (come to APU!!!!!)
2. Do any applied science degree e.g. Biomedical Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and then go to work in a Forensic Science lab, e.g at the Forensic Science Service.
3. Do any applied science degree (as in number 2 above) and then do a Masters degree in Forensic Science and then go to work in a Forensic Science lab.
return to story
<< Go Back