UKRI – 101 Jobs that Change the World

The campaign aims to highlight 101 people across the UK, doing 101 different jobs that make major contributions towards research and innovation. Working towards a more inclusive research and innovation system, it seeks to challenge the perception of researchers and innovators as Einstein-like ‘lone geniuses’, which makes research and innovation appear remote and exclusive, which inhibits the collaborative, supportive research cultures that we need to catalyse creative discovery and innovation.

From the @weareukri Instagram account:

“What clues would you look for at a crime scene? Fingerprints? Weapons? What about jewellery?

“Meet Dr Maria Maclennan, a lecturer in jewellery and silversmithing at the Edinburgh College of Art, and the world’s first forensic jeweller. She uses the principles that underpin jewellery design – such as hallmarks, serial numbers, how an item was made and who it was made by – to inform forensic and criminal investigations.

“Maria has worked with anthropologists, forensic archaeologists, embalmers and police officers to uncover people’s identities and stories, using jewellery as clues.

“One of her current projects (@identifyingthedisplaced) is helping to trace the identities and families of migrants and refugees who died at a treacherous river crossing between Turkey and Greece. She studies the objects they carried, the narrative that surrounds the object and the way the object acts as a representation of the person, their identity and their life.”