May 2005

If I look back to april, it was a busy month, however there were also some moment of reflection. I had several meetings in our laboratory, and of course some casework. Leo de Waal, our director, changed position to http://www.martiniziekenhuis.nl the Martini Hospital in Groningen. Furthermore, I had also a flue this month, so my schedule was somewhat disturbed.

I had several meetings outside the laboratory. One meeting was for FIDIS www.fidis.net in Berlin. We discussed on the progress and the further planning. Of course, Berlin is a real nice city to be, and the last time I visited Berlin was more than 6 years ago. Many things change in Berlin, however the good atmosphere remains.

The other meeting was of ENFSI Forensic IT with the Joint Research Center in Ispra. We discussed on our meeting in Amsterdam of ENFSI and validation of software tools. The meeting with FIDIS, IOCE and ENFSI-FIT will be scheduled from 14-16 September 2005. http://www.enfsi.org/ewg/fitwg/agenda/10 is the agenda of this meeting.

For FIDIS I also had to finish some papers, however I appear to be late on the schedules. One paper was on identity theft of biometric properties. Of course spoofing biometric systems is included in this one, as well as other methods which might influence their actual work in practice. The other text I am currently writing is on profiling.

Of course I also had to spend some time as a chairman of the Engineering Sciences group of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. I am also considering to organize a workshop on digital video and imaging with a revised program.

I also had a week vacation in Hurghada, Egypt. We went with Memphis Air, an Egyptian charter company, however had a delay of 10 hours on Amsterdam Airport (that are those delays where each several hours they will tell you the flight is further delayed, so you have to remain at the airport). Of course many persons complained and are trying the new EU-regulations on delays, however with a non-EU or non-US carrier this might be more difficult. The planes that they chartered were good, and on the return flight even excellent (a new airbus A320). Of course Hurghada was also nice, with possibilities to swim and dive, and to visit Luxor. I also had time to read the books I had no time for before. Some forensic books (I also like to read on different topics of forensic science, so this time I read the book Forensic Facial Reconstruction of Caroline Wilkinson).

May will be a month with many holidays. We will organize several meetings and workshops for the police, and the Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix, will open our new facility of the Netherlands Forensic Institute in the Hague, www.nieuwbouwnfi.nl on May 25th http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/NL/nieuws/Persberichten/2281.html .