Our team
"I hold a Ph.D. in Entomology from the Goethe University and the Senckenberg Research Institute and am an Associate Professor (Zoology) in the Department of Life Sciences at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. In 2001, I founded the Forensic Entomology Division at the Institute of Legal Medicine and have been active as an expert witness, researcher and teacher ever since. I am a founding member of the European Association for Forensic Entomology and currently its President, as well as being active in other committees such as the Animal, Plant and Soil Traces Working Group of the European Network of Forensic Institutes. My main research interest is the fusion of basic research and application.
Forensic entomology is ideal for this and offers me the opportunity to combine a wide range of disciplines and a colourful bouquet of methods from molecular biology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, physics, etc. under one roof."
Jens Amendt, Prof. Dr.
amendt@em.uni-frankfurt.de
069 6301 85414
"I am a post-doc in the working group and have been scientifically involved in forensic entomology since 2014. After stops in forensic laboratories in Canada and Poland and a master's degree in Bayreuth, I have been working in Prof. Dr. Jens Amendt's working group since 2018. During My PhD, which I successfully completed in 2022, I focused primarily on improving temperature reconstruction, modeling the flight and oviposition activity of necrophagous flies and improving the connection between basic forensic research and daily case work and these topics are still my research focus. My tasks in the working group include the analysis of entomological traces both in criminal cases and the daily dissection material in our institute, the writing of entomological reports for the police and public prosecutor's office, the training of the police in Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, conducting scientific experiments and writing publications. Since December 1, 2023, I have also been acting as a scientific project coordinator in the EU-funded project “MaDE in Germany – an preservation and training concept for entomological traces in case work”, which aims to establish and professionalize forensic entomology in Germany by the end of 2026 in close cooperation with the BKA and other police authorities."
"In 2021, I completed my master's thesis in forensic entomology under the supervision of Prof Amendt, in which I investigated the insect succession and decomposition of pig cadavers placed inside tents or exposed in the field. After that I started my PhD in 2022 with the title "New molecular techniques in the field of forensic entomology". My aim is to develop a new method for determining the species and age of blowfly pupae and puparia and to establish this method in the case work."
Luise Thümmel, M. Sc. (PhD student)
"Through my studies of "general and digital forensics" in Mittweida, I became aware of forensic entomology. In 2022, I was able to complete both my practical project and my Bachelor's thesis in the working group of Prof. Jens Amendt, in which I investigated the eye pigmentation of the blowfly Lucilia sericata during pupal development. Since July 2023, I have been employed here at the institute as a student assistant alongside my bioinformatics Master's degree. My main tasks include the digital representation of the lab activities and support in fly breeding."
Colin Degoutrie, B. Sc. (scientific assistant)
degoutrie@med.uni-frankfurt.de
