Dr Sophie Beckett

Research Fellow
Location: Shrivenham campus
E: s.beckett@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1793 785357
Department of Engineering and Applied Science


Current activities

Sophie is a Research Fellow within Cranfield Forensic Institute. She is the Lab Manager for Cranfield Forensic Institute’s new Analytical Laboratory and also assists in the management of the  X-ray Diffraction Laboratories  with Professor Keith Rogers. She undertakes commercial contract work and is involved in lecturing and student supervision for the Forensic MSc Programme.

Sophie is a team member for Kenyon International Emergency Services Inc. with whom she has worked in Thailand, in February and June 2005, and in the UK, in January 2008 and May 2010. She is also a member of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project.


Research

The primary focus of Sophie’s research is the investigation of bone mineral composition, structure and chemistry and its variation. Bone mineral is a complex heterogeneous material that resembles a poorly crystalline form of the mineral calcium hydroxyapatite, with many crystal lattice and surface defects. It is a nano-material and is a composite component of bone, located within an organic matrix of collagen, other proteins and water. The study and characterization of bone mineral is therefore challenging and necessarily, interdisciplinary. It is also fascinating and of considerable value to numerous applications and research within the medical, materials, forensic and archaeological sciences.

Sophie also has research interests in the study of other biological minerals such as archaeological urinary stones and dental calculus (plaque) and in the osteological analysis of human remains.

Background

Sophie gained her PhD from Cranfield University in 2009 and has an MSc in Forensic Archaeological Science from University College London. Her undergraduate degree was a BSc in Chemistry from Durham University.

Selected publications

Journal Publications

Beckett S, Rogers K, Clement J, 2011, Inter-species variation in bone mineral behavior upon heating. Journal Forensic Sciences, 56, 3, 571 - 579

Rogers K, Beckett S, Kuhn S, Chamberlain A, Clement J, 2010, Contrasting the 'Crystallinity' of heated and diagenetically altered bone mineral. Palaeo, Palaeo, Palaeo, 296, 1-2, 125-129

Rogers KD, Jones B, Roberts L, Rich M, Attard-Montalto N, Beckett S, 2011, Composition of uroliths in small domestic animals in the United Kingdom. The Veterinary Journal, 188, 2, 228 - 230

Beckett S, Hatton M and Rogers K, 2008, The Discovery and Analysis of a Urinary Calculus from an Anglo-Saxon Burial in Sedgeford, Norfolk. Norfolk Archaeology, XLV, 379-409