Improve the clarity of, and analyse, audio and video recordings.

Examine fire and explosion scenes to establish the origin and cause.

Detect, enhance, recover and identify latent fingerprints, footprints, tool marks, shoe marks, tyre marks and tracks.

Identify firearms and ammunition (forensic ballistics).

Analyse computers and obtain data from other electronic devices such as mobile phones.

Conduct document examinations, both physical (such as handwriting and typewriting) and chemical (such as analysis of inks and papers).

Conduct botanical identification of plant materials at trace levels and whole-plant identification (cannabis, for example).

Examine human and animal biological material to be compared with victims and suspects using DNA profiling.

Examine and compare materials such as fibres, paints, cosmetics, oils, fuels, plastics, glass, metals, soils and gunshot residues.

Analyse drugs and poisons in human tissue and body fluids, including blood alcohol results.

Contact the institutions you are interested in for more information. Universities have different prerequisites and some have flexible entry requirements. Entry to postgraduate courses usually requires completion of an appropriate bachelor degree. Prerequisite subjects, or assumed knowledge, in one or more of English, mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology are normally required. To get into the degree courses you usually need to gain your Senior Secondary Certificate of Education. Relevant areas include biology, botany, chemistry, physics, dentistry or medicine. You may also consider degrees in other relevant areas, which may provide entry into various areas of forensic science. To become a forensic scientist you usually have to study forensic science at university (preferably at honours level), followed by a postgraduate qualification in forensic science. Meticulous and capable of clear, logical and lateral thinkingĮducation & Training for a Forensic Scientist.Able to remain unbiased in the examination of potential court evidence.Personal requirements for a Forensic Scientist

What does a forensic scientist do