The EAFE 2004 meeting was held in London at the end of March 2004 and was attended by 84 delegates from throughout Europe, but also including some from Australia, Canada and the USA who had made a great and much appreciated effort to attend and share their experiences. The meeting began on Sunday 28th March with a social event in fitting with the meeting, a Jack the Ripper tour, although we suspect most of his victims were found too soon to be of much entomological interest! The scientific part of the meeting was held from 29th to 30th March in the Spencer Gallery of The Natural History Museum in South Kensington. It was opened by Dr Richard Lane, Director of Science at the NHM and Dr Dick Vane-Wright, Keeper of the Entomology Department.

Following on from the opening guest lecture by Jonathan Smith (National Crime and Operations Faculty, Bramshill, UK), a total of 27 lecture presentations were made and 12 posters displayed. The themes for the various sessions included ecology, field studies, case studies, laboratory studies, veterinary forensic entomology and best practice (see Abstracts on this site). During the dedicated poster (and wine!) session a “Guess the number of puparia in the jar” competition was held. Estimates ranged from 1,000 to 9,491, but the competition, and prize of a book, was won by Janet Karapetian who guessed to within just 20 of the correct figure of 3,880 puparia! Another prize presented was for the best student lecture or poster, kindly sponsored by Cambridge Technology Systems. Four judges from four countries unanimously declared Amoret Brandt, who presented in both formats, the winner of the award. On the subject of students, Hélène LeBlanc (University of Derby) was elected to the Board of EAFE as its first Student Representative.

The meeting attracted delegates from all the walks of life that come into contact with forensic entomology; entomologists certainly and also pathologists, meteorologists, crime scene investigators and the police. Clearly the meeting must have done something right, because 100% of the evaluation forms returned at the close of the meeting reported that it had met or exceeded the objectives of the delegates in attending. Comments included:-

“One of the best organised meetings I have been to in 30 years!”

“Everyone very friendly and eager to share.”

“Very good value.”

“Very useful to a non-entomologist.”

“Feel sorry for the piggies!”

From police and crime scene investigators there was a clear feeling that the meeting had been very useful, not just for the content but for the contacts made. However, there is still a real need for more outreach work, for entomologists to supply further training and information to those at the “sharp end” of crime investigation. So, plenty for us all to do in the future.

It was a real pleasure for us to host the meeting in London and we look forward to meeting old and new colleagues at the next meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland – keep coming back to the EAFE web site for details!

With very best wishes,

Martin Hall, Zoe Adams and Amoret Brandt

Organising Committee, EAFE 2004