Dear colleagues,

The 3rd Meeting of the European Academy of Forensic Science (EAFS2003
http://www.eafs2003.org/ ) will take place in Istanbul 22-27 September 2003.
Over 1000 scientists are expected to take part in this tri-annual Meeting
that is sponsored by the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (
http://www.enfsi.org/ ).

For the first time a scientific session is dedicated to Environmental
Forensics and another session to Wildlife Forensics (see also the link to
our report on Wildlife Forensics methods
http://www.forensischinstituut.nl/documents/CITES-report.pdf ). The
potential for forensic applications of Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry (or
Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry - SIMS or IRMS) has been recognized for some
time but has been applied only sparsely. In the UK a forensic isotopes
Network has been founded to develop the scope of stable isotope techniques
in forensic applications. As part of this initiative a two day meeting was
organized September 16-17( www.forensic-isotopes.rdg.ac.uk/index.htm ). In
both Environmental and Wildlife Forensics methods used by ISOGEOCHEM users
are applied to forensic problems and we expect further developments will
take place.

We have been asked to chair the Environmental and Wildlife Forensics
sessions. Abstracts for both poster and oral presentations can be submitted
untill 1th February, 2003 ( http://www.eafs2003.org/sub/abstracts.php ).
Both fields are very complex and fragmented; it may be difficult to contact
potentially interested participants.

With this mail we try to reach out to scientists involved in both fields
including Forensic Soil investigations. This should not be limited to the
penal process but also include investigations as part of other litigation.

Many Environmental Forensics techniques can also be applied to other
forensic uses. Eg. pollen or isotope patterns that can be used for tracing
(contaminated) soil transports can also be used for sourcing/comparing
minute soil samples as found in murder crimes. We are open to your
suggestions for extending the Environmental Forensics session to other
environment related methods (such as soil characterisation) not covered in
another session.

We look forward to your input and invite you to let us know if you intend to
come (even if you don't have funding yet) and if so, what specific topics
you are interested in and may present something on. Our intention is to use
your input to develop a session program in which the various aspects of this
field come together and will be integrated to demonstrate the strength and
potential of the methods and techniques. The session should provide a
platform for a meeting of and stimulating discussions between the various
partners and help bring this forensic field forward.

Could you please let us know if we can approach you to assist in further
developing a well-balanced session program. Please let us know if you want
to be informed on progress of the session organisation (replying this mail
with 'yes' will suffice) and feel free to forward this mail to other
contacts you think may be interested in contributing to this session.

On behalve of the organizers of the EAFS2003 Environmental Forensics and
Wildlife Forensics sessions,

Yours,

Dr Gerard J.Q. van der Peijl,
Forensic Scientist,
Netherlands Forensic Institute of the Netherlands Ministry of Justice,
PO Box 3110,
2280 GC Rijswijk,
The Netherlands
tel +31 70 413 53 53
fax +31 70 413 54 54

e-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.forensischinstituut.nl