The ENFSI membership has recognised the contributions of Ingvar Kopp by awarding him the Distinguished ENFSI Contributor Award in 2006.

 

Biographyingvar_kopp

Ingvar Kopp was born in Vänersborg, Sweden, on March 28, 1938. He graduated in physics at Stockholm University in 1966 with a dissertation on Spectroscopic Studies of some CaH-type molecules and of ND. He has published approximately fifty papers in physics and forensic science. He was Post Doctorate Fellow at National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada with Nobel laureate Gerhard Hertzberg.

After an academic career that included positions as lecturer at the University of Stockholm and administrator at the University of Linköping, Ingvar Kopp became Professor and Director of SKL – National Laboratory of Forensic Science, part of the Swedish police, in 1984. He kept that position until 2002, when he retired.
During his time SKL has more than doubled its part of the Swedish police budget. The number of cases grew fourfold and the turn-round times have been greatly reduced. Several new specialist areas were introduced to the laboratory: fingerprints, speech and audio and image analysis. During this time SKL also introduced a Quality Assurance system and got accredited.
Ingvar Kopp has successfully worked on improving communication between SKL and the rest of the Swedish Police organisation. SKL has become the driving force in the Swedish Police organisation for better use of forensic science in police investigations. He successfully worked on integrating the different parts of the forensic process. In 1999, this led to SKL taking over the responsibility for training and personnel development of crime scene investigators from the Police College.

Ingvar Kopp was one of the founding members of ENFSI. In 1994 he organised one of the first meetings in Linköping where he was involved in drafting the first version of the Memorandum of Understanding. He became the first Chairman of the ENFSI Board in 1994-1995. He was also a Board member from 2000 to 2001. In 2003 he became Honorary Member of ENFSI. During his time in ENFSI, Ingvar Kopp has been one of the most active members with several proposals for the improvement of the ENFSI organisation, participating intensively in the discussions. He took part in drafting several of the ENFSI steering documents, including the first Constitution, accepted by the Membership in Moscow in 1999.

On his proposal, ENFSI introduced two new standing committees in 2000: QCC, Quality and Competence Committee, and EAFS, European Academy of Forensic Science. During later years he has been a strong advocate for the need of Quality Assurance and especially the need for methods for Competence Assurance. He has been the chairman of CAP, the Competence Assurance Project and as such been adjoined to the Quality and Competence Committee.

Ingvar Kopp was Chairman of the organising committee for the 12th Interpol Forensic Science Symposium (1988) and has acted as External Examiner at the University of Strathclyde for the Masters Course in Forensic Science from 1998 to 2001.

Since his retirement he was involved in commissions in the forensic science area and other areas for the Swedish Government, The Swedish National Board of Police, international organisations and for private companies. He also has been leader of commissions for review of operational work within the Swedish Police Force.