'Forensic Wildlife Biology: the Connection Between Casework and Research' presented by Griffith University Associate Professor Dr Carney Matheson.

Associate Professor Carney Matheson

Dr Carney Matheson studied anthropology, archaeology, ancient history and classics and biochemistry at the University of Queensland, where he was involved in working on archaeological sites, in museums and research laboratories. Dr Matheson started research at the Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Queensland, while performing consulting work in molecular archaeology and forensic DNA analysis.Dr Matheson completed a PhD on the Mayan archaeological site of Copan in Honduras conducting excavations and analysing ceramic residues and ancient DNA at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland. This was followed by postdoctoral research at the Kuvin Centre for Tropical and Infectious Disease at the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital and Medical School studying ancient diseases. In Jerusalem Dr Matheson started consulting in wildlife forensics, archaeology and ancient DNA. Dr Matheson then moved to Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada where he was involved in setting up the paleo-DNA Laboratory a world class facility for the study of ancient and degraded DNA which is also accredited for forensic casework. Dr. Matheson's research focuses on degraded molecules and his applied research focuses in five main areas, biomolecular taphonomy, molecular paleopathology, biomedical science, archaeological science and forensic science. The themes of his archaeological research are ancient technologies, ancient disease and multiomic approaches to human, plant and animal identification. The themes of his forensic science research is DNA, proteomics, taphonomy, trace, crime scene techniques and biological and chemical criminalistics. Other themes of research include evolutionary medicine, host-pathogen-pathogen interactions, genetic genealogy and archived medical specimens.