2012: Nick Laan
Nick Laan, together with co-authors Karla de Bruin and Daniel Bonn, is the winner of the Best Poster Award 2012
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Biography Nick Laan
Nick Laan (born on September 11, 1984 in Rustenburg, Netherlands) obtained his Bachelor of Science in Physics at the VrijeUniversiteit (VU) in Amsterdam in 2008. Nick obtained his Master of Science at the University of Amsterdam in 2011. During his Masters he did a project on the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) of Amsterdam under supervision of Dr. M.C.G. Aalders and Dr. R.H. Bremmer of which the work has been published. His Master thesis was a collaborative project with the AMC and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI). In this project, the use of Optical Coherence Tomography in volume determination of a blood droplet was investigated. The project was done under supervision of Dr. M.C.G.Aalders and Dr. K.G. de Bruin.
After finishing his Master, Nick started his PhD at the University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Dr. K.G. de Bruin and Prof. Dr. D. Bonn. As part of the Soft Matter group from the Institute of Physics (IoP), Nick incorporates fluid dynamics with Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA). The subject of his PhD is to investigate whether the velocity of a blood droplet can be determined from a dried bloodstain to improve BPA methodologies which are used at crimes scenes.
Publications
Bremmer, R. H., S. C. Kanick, N. Laan, A. Amelink, T. G. van Leeuwen, and M. C. G. Aalders. 2011. Non-contact spectroscopic determination of large blood volume fractions in turbid media. Biomed. Opt. Express 2 (2):396-407.
Biography Karla de Bruin
Karla de Bruin studied Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2003 she did her Master thesis in Physical Chemistry at the Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich, Switzerland. She obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2008 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich, Germany. She studied the entrance of DNA into the cell by means of fluorescence microscopy.
After that, Karla started working at the Netherlands Forensic Institute, The Hague. She works since 2009 as a senior scientist and is responsible for the development and validation of new methods that can be used at the crime scene. Her main interests are bloodstain pattern analysis and optical methods. One of the current projects is the reconstruction of the flight path of a blood drop from a bloodstain. Since 2012 Karla is a member of the Scientific Working Group of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (SWGSTAIN).
Publications
De Bruin KG, Stoel RD, Limborgh JCM. Improving the Point of Origin Determination in Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. J For Sci (2011) 56 p1476.
De Bruin KG, Verheij SM, Veenhoven M, Sijen T. Comparison of stubbing and double swab method for collecting offender epithelial material from a victim’s skin. For Sci Int Gen (2012) 6 p219.
Bremmer RH, De Bruin KG, Van Gemert MJ, Van Leeuwen TG, Aalders MC. Forensic quest for age determination of bloodstains. For Sci Int (2012) 216 p1.