Shari Forbes (she/her/elle)

The majority of my work involves conducting research in the fields of forensic taphonomy and decomposition chemistry. I study what happens to the body after death. I also study the information we gain can be used to assist forensic death investigations. I am the Director of Canada's only human decomposition facility. Here people generously donate their bodies to science so that we can investigate the biological, chemical and physical processes of human decomposition in our unique Quebec climate.

One of my areas of research involves collecting the odour produced by human remains. Our goal is to identify the chemical compounds in decomposition odour. We do this using advanced chemical instrumentation known as multidimensional gas chromatography. This is important research.  Currently, we use specially trained dogs to locate human remains. These dogs are using decomposition odour to locate deceased persons. We don’t know which compounds from the decomposition odour that they are using. Once we discover those compounds, we can increase their ability to locate victims more quickly. This will be very important in difficult search environments like mass disasters.

Forensic science involves trying to solve a puzzle using science, where the puzzle is a crime. My team uses many different areas of science to study human decomposition. All of this requires problem solving. In addition to decomposition chemistry, we study other areas including:

• Forensic entomology. This is using insects to help us to estimate time since death.
• Forensic biology. This is the use of recovered DNA to identify a victim.
• Forensic microbiology. The bacteria within the body and in the environment can tell us how long a victim has been in that environment.
• Facial reconstruction. This is creating a recognisable image to assist a loved one to identify a missing person.

Each of these areas requires us to think of new ways to study these processes and discover new information not previously known for our continental (cold) climate in Canada. Our scientific backgrounds have trained us to think critically about these questions. It also helps us identify methods we should use to answer these questions using analytical skills.