Sue Black Honoured for Outstanding Achievements

Professor Dame Sue Black, an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist based at the University of Dundee, was named as one of the Saltire Society’s ‘Outstanding Women of Scotland’ for 2017, at a special ceremony at Glasgow Women’s Library held on 7th March.

Among 10 Scottish women from the fields of the arts, culture, politics, activism and science who were honoured, the 2017 inductees join the likes of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, J.K. Rowling and Annie Lennox in the Outstanding Women of Scotland community. Professor Black said, “I am grateful to the Saltire Society for this kind and amazing honour. My fellow inductees have all made exceptional contributions to their individual fields and I am proud to be part of such esteemed company. They, and the nominees from the past two years, are fantastic examples of how Scottish women are making a difference in this country and much further afield.

“For me, this is timely as it comes during the University’s annual Women in Science festival, the only one of its kind in the world. The festival, which I am patron of, celebrates the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and aims to encourage more young girls to consider a career in these subjects. For this to happen we need positive role models to show women that they can succeed in traditionally male-dominated industries.”

Professor Black is Director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) and co-Director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, both based at the University. Her forensic expertise has been crucial to a number of high-profile criminal cases, including the conviction of Scotland’s largest paedophile ring in 2009 and more recently the conviction of Richard Huckle, the UK’s most prolific paedophile. At CAHID she leads a team which has developed new forensic techniques such as identification of child abusers through vein and skin patterns of the hand and other parts of the anatomy.