Tom Nelson, Director of SPA Forensic Services
Tom has been a forensic scientist for over 30 years. He began his career at the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory where he developed a specialist expertise in fire investigation and chemical analysis.
Lucky to have had an extremely varied career, Tom has worked across all areas of forensic science; in the lab reporting major and complex cases, giving expert testimony in court and attending numerous crime scenes.
Tom is now responsible for the provision of forensic services for the police and criminal justice system in Scotland and was appointed as Director of Scotland’s first national forensic service in 2007. His task was to create a new ‘crime scene to court’ delivery model for forensic services bringing together for the first time four key disciplines under one service – scene examination, forensic laboratories, fingerprint units and business support. Now six years on the service has gone from strength to strength and is accredited to the highest forensic standard available in the UK.
The challenge now for Tom and his team is to ensure that Scotland remains at the forefront of forensic science and embraces new and exciting technologies that ‘CSS Forensics Squad’ can add to their forensic toolbox.
