English Speaking Working Group

Topics: Board | Meetings | Relationship Testing Workshop | Publications

Summary of the ESWG 2018 scientific meeting

The 2018 meeting of the English Speaking Working Group was held 12 September – 16 September 2018 at Hotel Vedensky, Saint Petersburg, Russia (http://www.eswg2018.org). The meeting was organized by Dr. Andrei Semikhodskii and colleagues. More than 80 participants from 25 different countries attended the meeting. The first days were devoted to six educational workshop of various forensic genetic topics like statistics in paternity and kinship analysis, DNA mixture interpretation, the use of non autosomal DNA markers, etc. The following days' scientific presentations covered topics such as STR sequence variation, use of MPS for kinship analysis, report from the relationship testing workshop and assessments of results from forensic genetic investigations. Some of the presentations are available for viewing.. At the member meeting it was decided that the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) will continue to organize the Relationship Testing Workshop also in 2019. We would like to thank Andrei Semikhodskii for organizing the successful meeting, not only the scientific part but also the social events such as the tour of the State Hermitage Museum and the dinner on the canals and rivers of St Petersburg.

Summary of the ESWG 2017 member meeting

In connection to the ISFG conference in Seoul, South Korea (August, 2017) the ESWG member meeting was held. In brief, Gunilla Holmlund chose to resign as the treasurer. She joined the board in 2012 and the board and members are thankful for her contributions over the years. Bo Thisted Simonsen (Denmark) was elected as the new treasurer, and we welcome him to the board! Andreas was re-elected as the chairman for another two years, and Denise was re-elected as the secretary for the upcoming 2 years. Daniel Kling presented a summary of this year's (2017) ESWG proficiency testing workshop. Daniel and colleagues will organize the workshop also in 2018. As the last item, Andrei Semikhodskii talked about the plans for the 2018 ESWG scientific meeting which will be held in St Petersburg (Russia) in September 2018.

Summary of the ESWG 2016 scientific meeting

The 2016 meeting of the English Speaking Working Group was held 31 August – 3 September 2016 at Hotel Novotel Budapest Centrum, Budapest, Hungary. The meeting was organized by Dr. Horolma Pamjav and colleagues with about 60 participants attending. The 25 scientific presentations covered topics such as STR sequence variation, expanded marker sets for relationship testing and assessment of results from forensic genetic investigations. Some of the presentations are available for viewing. Furthermore, a summary of the Relationship Testing Workshops 2016 were presented. At the members meeting it was decided that the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) will continue to organize the paper challenge of the Relationship Testing Workshop and also include the wet exercise.

Relationship Testing Workshop

The 2018 proficiency testing exercises (wet and paper challenge) will be organized by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). More information will soon be available. For questions regarding the exercise, please contact Daniel Kling (daniel.kling@fhi.no).

Membership of the ESWG

Membership of the English Speaking Working Group (ESWG) is open to all English speaking members of the ISFG and may be obtained by application to the secretary of the group. There will be no membership fee in addition to that payable to the ISFG. Please go to your personal profile and tick membership of the ESWG.

Aims of the English Speaking Working Group are

• the exchange of experience, quality control and stimulation of cooperation between the members;
• making available scientific knowledge and findings in the field of interest;
• organisation of scientific meetings ­– but such meetings will be held only after consultation with the ISFG.

Here, you find the constitution of the ESWG.

History of the ESWG

The ESWG was founded after the ISFH meeting 23-27 September 1979 in London. Here you find some more details about the history of the ESWG.

Board

A board administers the ESWG that is responsible for organising any meeting of the group. The board consists of the chairman, the secretary and the treasurer who are elected by vote for a period of two years. The board represents the working group.

Chairman

Secretary

Treasurer

Publications of the Group

1. Syndercombe Court D, Lincoln P. A review of the 1991: 1994 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English-Speaking Working Group. In: Carracedo A, Brinkmann, Bär W (eds) Advances in Forensic Haemogenetics 6. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 683-5.
2. Bjerre A, Syndercombe Court D, Lincoln P, Morling N. A report of the 1995 and 1996 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Haemogenetics. Forensic Sci Int 1997; 90: 41-55.
3. Hallenberg C, Morling N. A report of the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Sci Int 2001; 116: 23-33.
4. Hallenberg C, Morling N. A report of the 2000 and 2001 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Sci Int 2002; 129: 43-50.
5. Thomsen AR, Hallenberg C, Simonsen BT, Langkjær RB, Morling N. A report of the 2002-2008 Paternity Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. FSI: Genetics 2009,3: 214-21.
6. Poulsen L, Friis SL, Hallenberg C, Simonsen BT, Morling N. A report of the 2009–2011 Paternity and Relationship Testing Workshops of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. Forensic Science International: Genetics 2014; 9: e1-2.