Honouring Excellence: Dr. Duncan Taylor PSM on Winning the John Harber Phillips Award 2025

Honouring Excellence: Dr. Duncan Taylor PSM on Winning the John Harber Phillips Award 2025

Dr Duncan Taylor PSM, a world-leading forensic DNA and statistics practitioner, has been awarded the prestigious Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency National Institute of Forensic Science (ANZPAA NIFS) John Harber Phillips Award 2025, recognising his outstanding contribution to forensic science and innovation. The award was formally presented on 17 October at the 27th International Symposium of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS).

Dr Taylor has dedicated his career to advancing forensic DNA interpretation and developing methodologies that have transformed the way evidence is analysed and presented in court. His groundbreaking work has improved the quality of forensic science globally, enhanced justice outcomes and strengthened investigative capabilities. Dr Talor has authored more than 150 papers, two books and mentored forensic scientists. He has received numerous accolades, including the inaugural Eureka Prize for Excellence in Forensic Science (2025), Public Service Medal (2021) and the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Science Award (2018). He is well known to the ANZPAA NIFS community as a consistent winner of the ANZPAA NIFS Best Paper Awards.

We caught up with Duncan, to reflect on his achievement and gather his insights into the evolving landscape of forensic science. With a career marked by innovation and dedication to the advancement of forensic biology, Duncan shared what winning the award means to him, the challenges he’s faced in the field, where he sees the discipline heading and his advice for the next generation of practitioners.

On receiving the award, Duncan told us: “I am deeply honoured to receive this award. It is a wonderful recognition not only for me, but also of the incredible support I have had from colleagues, mentors, and collaborators throughout my career. This award highlights the importance of advancing science and innovation, and I hope it will inspire others who are passionate about making a difference through forensic research.”

Among his many contributions to forensic science, Duncan highlights one achievement as particularly meaningful: “I have been very fortunate to work with amazing colleagues around the world. What I feel is one of my most significant contributions is the work I have done with my colleagues at PHF Science in New Zealand on software STRmix. This software is used to analyse DNA profiles, and since its release in 2012 it has been adopted by over 100 labs around the world and used in over half a million cases. There is even a user-organised yearly STRmix conference that attracts over 1000 people. STRmix has had an enormously positive impact on forensic biology around the world and I am immensely proud to have been part of it.”

Duncan also reflected on the importance of continued progress in the field and the need to champion research and innovation within forensic science institutions:

“Forensic Science facilities are primarily service institutions and are usually funded accordingly. However, over decades of working in the field, I have come to appreciate the importance of any scientific institution undertaking research, validation, training and keeping up to date with advancements in their field. An ongoing challenge is to continue promoting forensic research with collaborators, when governments around the world are reducing budgets and, in some cases, demoting the importance of science.”

Looking ahead, Duncan identified two major trends shaping the future of forensic biology - automation and intelligence:

“First is automation. I see that many of the classic forensic biology tasks such as reading profiles, assigning a number of contributors, interpreting and analysing profiles being taken over by sophisticated and highly performing algorithms and workflows. This will lead to automation of many tasks that we currently undertake, releasing scientists to concentrate their efforts in areas that expertise is most called for and most impactful. That is, explaining the meaning of the DNA findings within a greater context that considers the circumstances of the case and the disputed activities. Second is intelligence. As more laboratories build up expertise in probabilistic genotyping and use them for a number of years, they build up stores of data for all analysed profiles. This information can be analysed collectively to provide new insights into unsolved cases. Samples from cases can be combined to gain better resolution in the profiles of donors and searched against a database, complex profiles can be interpreted in ways that standard profile analysis doesn’t allow.”

Finally, Duncan offered words of encouragement and wisdom for early-career forensic scientists:

“Learn as much as possible. Volunteer for projects that are outside your comfort zone, find people who are passionate about their field and work with them. Don’t feel embarrassed about asking questions when you are not sure about something. Don’t be scared of making mistakes or following an idea just because it may not work out. In other words, be curious, adventurous and open-minded.”

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