Sheila Willis
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Sheila Willis (born 11 June 1952) is a pioneer of the introduction of DNA profiling to the Irish legal system. She contributed to the establishment of the national DNA Database System in 2015.[1]
Early life and education
Sheila M. Willis was as an undergraduate at University College Dublin and subsequently carried out postgraduate research supervised by Anthony Manning for the award of PhD in 1977.[2]
Career
Her first employment was as a chemist at Clondalkin Paper Mills. She was subsequently employed in as a civil servant in the Irish forensic science laboratory and promoted, reaching the position of laboratory director. She was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland from 2002 to 2016.[3] She developed the analytical facilities as well as recruiting a multidisciplinary team. This included initiating DNA profiling analysis and database curation in Ireland as the technology developed. Her final achievement before retiring was overseeing the foundation of a Forensic Science Laboratory building in Ireland.[2]
Willis has been chair of the Association of Forensic Science Providers and has advised the Uk and Irish governments.[2]
She is an honorary professor at the University of Dundee and member of the advisory board for the university's Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science.[4]. Willis is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forensic Research,[5] published by Hilaris, a subsidiary of the notorious predatory publisher, OMICS Publishing Group.[6]
In 2024 she was a guest on on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Life Scientific, interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili.[7]
Awards and honours
Willis was the recipient of the Boyle Higgins gold medal and lecture award in 2013.[8] She received the UCD Alumni Award in Science in 2017.[9] In 2019 Willis was awarded an honorary degree DSc by University College, Dublin.[2] Willis was president of the The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences from 2020 until 2022.
References
- ^ O'Keeffe, Cormac (18 May 2017). "DNA database". Irish Examiner.
- ^ a b c d "University College Dublin honorary conferring". UCD President's Office Oifig an Uachtaráin UCD. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
- ^ "Former Director General of Forensic Science Ireland". 18 September 2022.
- ^ "Dr Sheila Willis". University of Dundee. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ "Dr. Sheila M Willis | Hilaris SRL". www.hilarispublisher.com. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
- ^ Siler, Kyle; Vincent-Lamarre, Philippe; Sugimoto, Cassidy R.; Larivière, Vincent (28 October 2021). "Predatory publishers' latest scam: bootlegged and rebranded papers". Nature. 598 (7882): 563–565. Bibcode:2021Natur.598..563S. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-02906-8. hdl:1866/25816. PMID 34703002. S2CID 239999772.
- ^ "Using science to help solve crime".
- ^ "Institute Awards". Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
- ^ "UCD Alumni Awardee".
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