Korean Speaking Working Group

Membership of the Korean Speaking Working Group (KSWG) is open to all Korean speaking members of the ISFG. There will be no other membership fee in addition to that payable to the ISFG. The purpose of the KSWG is (1) to be a conduit of communication between Korean speaking individuals who are interested in forensic genetics, and (2) to contribute to the forensic community by working on projects which need multi-institute participation including a QA/QC program, and (3) to facilitate academic improvement of members through cooperation, and (4) to be a channel for international exchange in the forensic genetics community.

News

On October 15, Seoul National University College of Medicine held a seminar under the theme "DNA in the Court" hosted by the ISFG Korean Speaking Working Group. This seminar was sponsored by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and Seoul National University’s Institute of Forensic and Anthropological Science, and became a venue for experts in various fields, such as forensic genetics, law, and criminal psychology, to gather to discuss how forensic geneticist should speak in court so that the court effectively interpret experts’ testimonies and reports. Lectures were given on the legal terminology and uniform language for testimony and reports, and a DNA analyst working at the forensic laboratory of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was invited and introduced DNA analysis and court testimony in the United States.

2024 Meeting

The Korean-speaking working group meeting held during the last ISFG conference in Santiago was attended by more than 20 Koreans, including not only members but also students who attended the ISFG conference for the first time. At this meeting, Chairman Kyoung-Jin Shin introduced the history and role of the working group, and Hwan Young Lee was announced as the new Chair. She explained to the participants how to join the ISFG and the benefits of joining and encouraged them to join.

Past meetings

2023 Meeting

The KSWG was unable to hold a meeting in 2022, but has jointly organized with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office a meeting, "The 7th International Symposium on Forensic DNA in Law," in Seoul on May 10, 2023. The topics were metabarcording for species identification and DNA methylation profiling for mixture analysis and age prediction.

2021 Meeting

The KSWG scientific meeting was held online on November 23, 2021 with the support of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office of Korea and the Korean National Police Agency. Past, present and future of forensic genetics in Korea and forensic epigenetics were the main focus. We appreciate the contribution of Dr. Wojciech Branicki (Jagiellonian University, Poland) and Dr. Jana Naue (University of Freiburg, Germany) to our meeting KSWG 2021.

History

The Korean Speaking Working Group was proposed and approved during the general assembly at the 24th World Congress of the ISFG, September 2011, in Vienna, Austria. The members of the board are as follows:

Executive Board

Chairwoman

Vice Chairman

Secretary