PhD: EPSRC CASE studentship in STATISTICS: £18K, University of Sheffield
Statistical modelling of fingerprints

This studentship is sponsored by the Forensic Science Service and will involve
developing methodology to generate fingerprints from fingermarks. Fingermarks
from a crime scene are of low quality which makes them difficult to use in
intelligence and evidential evaluation tasks. The project is about
reconstructing, by statistical means, a set of fingerprints that would be likely
to originate from the finger that left the fingermark. The work is likely to
involve various methods of applied statistics, including statistical computing,
exploratory data analysis, spatial statistical modelling, model fitting. This
studentship should be attractive to those with a statistical &/or mathematical
background who want to develop their interest the direction of applied
statistical modelling in a research environment and gain experience of forensic
applications. It is intended that the studentship will start on 21 September
2009.
The studentship is open to EU candidates normally resident in the UK and to
EU candidates normally resident in the EU other than the UK. Tuition fees
would be paid for both groups. In addition, for UK residents an annual stipend
of approx. 17,940 pounds a year, but other EU residents would receive only a
component of 3,000 pounds a year. The funding also includes an additional
element for attendence and presentation at international conferences.
Candidates should have a good first degree in Mathematics involving a
substantial component of Statistics or an MSc in Statistics and additionally
have a strong interest and preferably experience in statistical programming.
Further details can be obtained informally from [log in to unmask] and
these and the application procedure can be found at
http://www.nickfieller.staff.shef.ac.uk/casefinger.pdf

Applications should be received by 30 June 2009.
The Department reserves the right to make an appointment before that date.