Caroline Wilkinson

Caroline M. Wilkinson FRSE FRAI (born 27 October 1965) is a British anthropologist and academic, who specialises in forensic facial reconstruction. She has been a professor at the Liverpool John Moores University's School of Art and Design since 2014.^[1] She is best known for her work in forensic facial reconstruction and has been a contributor to many television programmes on the subject, as well as the creator of reconstructed heads of kings Richard III of England in 2013^[2] and Robert the Bruce of Scotland in 2016.^[3]

Academic career

Wilkinson holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in facial anthropology from the University of Manchester (2000), and from 2000 to 2005 led the Unit of Art and Medicine at the university.^[4] Between 2005 and 2014 she taught at the University of Dundee in the award-winning Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, where from 2011 she was Professor of Craniofacial Identification and Head of Human Identification.

She first became known to television audiences as a result of her regular appearances on the BBC series Meet the Ancestors,^[5] and also appeared on History Cold Case while working at the University of Dundee (2005 – 2014).

Facial reconstruction

In 2013, Wilkinson created a facial reconstruction of King Richard III, whose remains had been uncovered in a car park and positively identified using DNA.^[2]

In December that year, Wilkinson created a facial reconstruction of Saint Nicholas, working from anatomical knowledge, tissue depth data, and the latest reconstruction technology.^[6] From his skeletal remains, it was known that his broken nose had "healed asymmetrically, giving him a characteristic nose and rugged facial appearance".^[7]

In 2016, Wilkinson helped create facial reconstructions of Robert the Bruce, using a skull believed to have belonged to the Scottish king. Two versions were created, one standard one and another based on the belief that he had suffered from leprosy.^[3]

She is the author of several works on the subject of facial identification and depiction.

Awards

In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh^[8] and was awarded the 2013 RSE Senior Prize for Public Engagement. In 2014, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI).^[9]

Wilkinson was awarded the Combined Royal Colleges medal of the Royal Photographic Society in 2016, for "outstanding contribution to the advancement of medical photography or medical imaging."^[10]

Works

• "Juvenile forensic facial reconstruction – a detailed accuracy study" (with Whittaker, DK). Proceedings of the 10th Meeting of the International Association of Craniofacial Identification, Bari, Italy; 98-110 (2002)
• "Measurement of eyeball protrusion and its application in facial reconstruction." (with Mautner, SA.) J For Sci 48 (1) 12-16 (2003)
• "The reconstruction of faces showing healed wounds."(with Neave, RAH) J Archaeological Science 30; 1343-1348 (2003)
• "The relationship between the soft tissues and the skeletal detail of the mouth." (with Motwani, M and Chiang, E.) J For Sci. 48 (4) 1-5 (2003)
• "In vivo facial tissue depth measurements for White British children". J. Forensic Sci 47 (3): 459-465
• Forensic Facial Reconstruction (Cambridge University Press, 2008) ISBN 0-521-09012-1
• "Craniofacial Identification" (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Co-editor. ISBN 978-0-521-76862-7

References

External links

• Faculty page at Liverpool John Moores University
• Caroline Wilkinson at IMDb

This page was last edited on 6 September 2023, at 10:55