English Speaking Working Group
Topics: Board | Meetings | Relationship Testing Workshop | Publications
The 2020 scientific meeting of the ESWG has been cancelled
Due to the Corona virus/Covid-19 situation we have decided to cancel this year’s ESWG scientific meeting in Oslo, Norway. This is sad of course, but we could not see how the meeting would be successful given the circumstances. We have chosen not to postpone the meeting but instead plan for a new scientific meeting in 2022. We will have an ESWG member meeting at the ISFG congress in Washington, 2021, where we will discuss and decide the host of the 2022 meeting. We are grateful for all the work that our colleagues in Oslo have done on the planning. We would also like to thank all planned workshop leaders, keynote speakers and participants that have registered, and hope that you will join our 2022 meeting! Furthermore, we aim for a webinar in the autumn to present and discuss the results from the ESWG proficiency testing program. More information will follow!Summary of the ESWG 2019 member meeting
In connection to the ISFG conference in Prague, Czech Republic (September, 2019) the ESWG member meeting was held. Approximately 40 members were present at the meeting. In brief, the board was re-elected for another two years (Andreas Tillmar as the chairman, Denise Syndercombe Court as the secretary and Bo Thisted Simonsen as the treasurer). Daniel Kling presented a summary of this year's (2019) ESWG proficiency testing workshop. Daniel and colleagues will also organize the workshop 2020 (more information will come in the spring). Marguerethe Rødhammer Stenersen, Oslo, Norway presented a proposal for the 2020 ESWG scientific meeting. The board and the members present at the meeting agreed that the 2020 meeting should be hosted by Margurethe and colleagues.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.Relationship Testing Workshop
The 2020 proficiency testing exercises (wet and paper challenge) will be organized by the Department of Forensic Sciences, Oslo University Hospital. More information will soon be available. For questions regarding the exercise, please contact Daniel Kling (daniel.kling@rmv.se).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.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.
History of the ESWG
Board
Chairman
Andreas Tillmar
National Board of Forensic Medicine
Dept.of Forensic Genetics
Artilleriegatan 12
58758 Linköping
Sweden
Phone +46 104834143
Fax +46 104834199
andreas.tillmar@rmv.se
Dept.of Forensic Genetics
Artilleriegatan 12
58758 Linköping
Sweden
Fax +46 104834199
Secretary
Dr. Denise Syndercombe Court
Department of Forensic and Analytical Science
King's College London
Franklin-Wilkins Building
150 Stamford Street
Waterloo
SE1 9NH London
United Kingdom
Phone +44 20 7848 4155
Fax +44 20 7848 4129
denise.syndercombe-court@kcl.ac.uk
King's College London
Franklin-Wilkins Building
150 Stamford Street
Waterloo
SE1 9NH London
United Kingdom
Fax +44 20 7848 4129
Treasurer
Dr. Bo Thisted Simonsen
Section of Forensic Genetics
Frederik V's Vej 11
2100 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone +45 35326110
Fax +45 35326270
bo.simonsen@sund.ku.dk
Frederik V's Vej 11
2100 Copenhagen
Denmark
Fax +45 35326270
Publications of the Group
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.