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61 Med. Sci. & L. 3 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/mdsclw61 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial New Year message from the President of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences Medicine, Science and the Law 2021, Vol. 61(1) 3 © The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0025802420983616 journals.sagepub.com/home/msl OSAGE Tracy Alexander I feel very lucky to be writing to you all having survived this difficult year relatively unscathed. I know many of you have not been so fortunate, and I send the warmest wishes of the executive committee to you especially. We started the BAFS year on a high with an excel- lent joint conference with the Royal Society of Medicine on expert witness bias, featuring Professors Denise Syndercombe-Court and Nigel Eastman.1 It was well attended and very well received, but we had hardly any time to enjoy the success before the new world of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was upon us. Sadly, two of our stalwart exec committee members, Mr Terry Keating and Dr Eddie Josse, were amongst the first victims, and their obituaries - beautifully written by Denise - appeared in an earlier edition of this journal.2'3 Having had to cancel all our scheduled face-to-face events, we have since been bolstered by the achieve- ments of Professor Andrew Forrester as editor of the journal, which has gone from strength to strength. There will be a special edition of the journal to accom- pany our standard edition in January 2021 in order to showcase the Proceedings of the 43rd Congress of the Italian Society of Legal Medicine (SIMLA), Verona, Italy, 2018. Andrew has recently been appointed chair of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University and will be presenting a lecture at a special BAFS event in February 2021. His work on the journal speaks for itself, and I am extremely grateful for all his efforts. The paper from the winner of the science prize will soon be available, and I urge you to look out for it, as it focuses on the illegal wildlife trade which has particularly come to the fore this year. We were unable to deliver the prize in person, but we are none- theless hoping that our regular events will soon be reconvened. We have hosted some very popular online talks. Executive committee member Leslie Millin was the first, with an excellent talk on the topic of inquests. Then, Angela Shaw gave a fascinat- ing talk on gunshot residue and its evidential difficul- ties, and most recently, BAFS Christmas favourite Jo Millington gave a talk on bloodstain pattern analysis, attracting a truly international audience. They were all so well attended that online talks must be a part of our plan for the future. Our joint conference with the Royal Society of Medicine this January, on digital forensics, will be a series of three team events. Please do look out for the details on the website (www.bafs.org.uk). Before closing, I must thank Denise Syndercombe- Court, our Secretary General, for keeping us going, Lesley Nott for all that she does, and Alvaro Varela Morillas, without whom our online successes would not have been possible. Wishing you all the very best for 2021. Tracy Alexander References 1. Forrester A. Clinical and scientific expert witness bias: sources and expression. Med Sci Law 2020; 60: 159-160. 2. Syndercombe-Court D. Terry Keating (1950-2020). Med Sci Law 2020; 60: 241. 3. Syndercombe-Court D. Dr Eddie Josse, OBE, MA, FRCGP, DMJ, FFFLM, FACBS (1933-2020). Med Sci Law 2020; 60: 242. British Academy of Forensic Sciences, UK Corresponding author: Tracy Alexander, President, British Academy of Forensic Sciences. Email: Tracy.Alexander@city-of-london.pnn.police.uk

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