Jamie Pringle

Biography

A Reader in Forensic Geoscience in Keele University, Jamie is currently seconded to the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences to lead the Forensic Science programmes as Programme Director. Before this he was within the School of Life Sciences contributing to their programmes. Jamie is a Chartered Geologist by the Geological Society of London and is on the National Crime Agency (NCA) Expert Advisors database.

Jamie’s research includes the forensic search of land and water for a variety of objects for criminal and civil purposes, regularly undertaking forensic searches for Regional and National Police Services, the National Crime Agency and Environmental Agency, as well as wildlife crime.

Please email for media requests.

Research and scholarship

Part of the Forensic geoscience terrestrial and aquatic research groups, current research interests include the forensic search on land and in water for a variety of objects for criminal and civil purposes, conflict archaeology sites, controlled test research and investigating environmental and wildlife crime.

Land search is currently looking at locating unmarked graves in graveyards and cemeteries, criminal unsolved cold case search, environmental forensics looking at contaminated soil, wildlife crime particularly badger sett interference and archaeology investigations.

Water search is currently looking at developing optimal strategies, workflows and protocols to detect sunken items of forensic interest including sadly drowned victims, combining the latest technological advances, including UAVs, sonar and Water Penetrating Radar. This takes advantage of Keele University Estates having numerous ponds and lakes of various dimensions to test equipment on.

The aquatic research was covered by BBC Crimewatch in 2022 - https://youtu.be/y5M-gB0LJtE

Actively involved in forensic casework for consultancy/impartial advice, search assistance or case reviews, the KU team have assisted on 16 UK cases and 12 international cases to date.

Teaching

Year 1

• FSC-10001: Forensic Science Skills and Practice

Year 3

• FSC-30013 : Forensic Geoscience (Module Leader)
• FSC-30021 / FSC-30025 Forensic Science Research Project
• ESC-30066 / ESC-30068 / ESC-30070 Geology (Geophysics / Environmental / Geoforensics) student projects
• ESC-30080 Geoforensics Frontiers

Year 4

• FSC-40009 Research Skills for Analytical Science (Module Leader)
• FSC-40011 : Independent Project (Supervisor)
• ESC-40004/5/6 : M.Geoscience Research Project (Supervisor)
• ESC-40044 : MSc Dissertation

Outreach

I am fully committed to outreach and widening participation and am involved in a variety of deliveries throughout the year, being nominated for Keele WP outreach academic contributor for the last 4 years.

My standard interactive talk/demonstration is: 'How to find a dead body' which goes down well for 12+ ages, and have also recently developed a 'Mining in WW1' talking about how geology and mining in Flanders, so please get in touch if you want either of these.

Together with Keele and Staffs University colleagues, I have also been awarded a HLF project about the 'Science behind WW1 grant which will run until Christmas 2017, please see here for details.

Finally I run a science club at a local primary school (funded by the Royal Society, Keele outreach and the school PTFA) , activity/information KS1/KS2 aligned sample sheets can be downloaded below (please email me if you want the KS2 quiz answers or resources help!)

KS1

• Science Club Gold Panning
• Science Club Germs
• Science Club Light Detectives
• Science Club Matchstick Rockets
• Science Club Plants
• Science Club Technology
• Science Club Vortex Canon
• Science Club Weather

KS2

• Science Club Geologists - KS2
• Science Club Germs - KS2
• Science Club Light Detectives - KS2
• Science Club Matchstick Rockets - KS2
• Science Club Vortex Canon - KS2
• Science Club Technology - KS2
• Science Club Weather - KS2
• Science Club Chemists - KS2
• Science Club Food Science - KS2
• Science Club Temperature - KS2
• Science Club Magnetism - KS2
• Science Club Rockets - KS2
• Science Club Forensics - KS2
• Science Club Planets - KS2
• Science Club Teeth - KS2
• Science Club Metal Detectors - KS2
• Science Club Engineers - KS2
• Science Club Light Kaleidoscopes - KS2