Professor John Clement
Professor and Inaugural Chair of Forensic Odontology
Location: University of Melbourne
E: johngc@unimelb.edu.au
T: + 61 3 9341 1485
Current activities
John Clement is the Professor and Inaugural Chair of Forensic Odontology at Melbourne Dental School in the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also Honorary Associate Professor at Monash University in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne Australia and a visiting Honorary Research Fellow at Cranfield University’s Forensic Institute in the Defence Academy of the UK.
He was the first Director of the Centre for Human Identification (CHI) at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) from 2003-2007. CHI was formed as a multidisciplinary core group with expertise in odontology, anthropology and entomology that specialised in the interpretation of human facial features and skeletal remains for the identification of both the living and the dead. Prior to this, from 1989 he was head consultant forensic odontologist to the VIFM overseeing the provision of practical 24 hour on-call forensic ododntological service across the State of Victoria.
Prof Clement is past President of both the British and Australian associations/societies for Forensic Odontology (BAFO and ASFD), a founder member of the International Association for Craniofacial Identification (IACI) and Dental Ethics and Law Society (IDEALS). For more than 35 years Prof. Clement has had hands-on practical experience of working in the area of mass disaster victim identification. In 2005 he, along with many others, contributed to the identification of the victims of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand. More recently, in Jan 2008 he also worked to identify the 173 victims of the huge bushfires that ravaged his home state of Victoria, in Australia.
He has also served on an expert advisory panel to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) dealing with the problem of the identification of missing persons and human remains following conflicts and civil strife. He is currently a member of the Scientific Steering Committee on Forensic Science Programs to the International Commission on Missing persons (ICMP) based in Sarajevo.
Academically he is Australia’s most qualified forensic odontologist who has published two books and more than a dozen book chapters on forensic odontology in addition to more than 70 peer reviewed articles in high impact international scientific journals. Many of these relate to his team‘s scientific work related to issues of identification for both the living and the dead.
Recently he has been awarded an Honorary Foundation Fellowship in the newly-formed Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of England. This is the highest honour they can bestow on a non-medically qualified person.
Background
- BDS Bachelor of Dental Surgery, University College Hospital Dental School, University of London, UK September 1968 – December 1972
- LDS RCS Licentiate of Dental Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons England 1973
- Dip For Odont Diploma in Forensic Odontology, London Hospital Medical College, University of London – 1985
- PhD Doctor of Philosophy, University of London – 1986 (Board of Studies: Human Anatomy and Morphology)
- FFFLM RCP-Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, Royal College of Physicians England
- FICD, International College of Dentists
Selected publications
Bertelsen PK, Clement JG and Thomas CDL A morphometric study of the cortex of the human femur from early childhood to advanced old age. Forensic Sci Int 74: 63-77. 1995
Holden JL, Phakey PP and Clement JG Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations of heat-treated human bone. Forensic Sci Int 74: 29-45. 1995
Holden JL, Phakey PP and Clement JG Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations of incinerated human bone: a case study. Forensic Sci Int 74: 17-28. 1995
Holden JL, Clement JG and Phakey PP Age and temperature related changes to the structure and chemistry of human bone mineral. J Bone Miner Res 10(9):1400-1409. 1995
Liu ZQ, Austin T, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Bone feature analysis using image processing techniques. Comput Biol Med. 26(1): 65-76. 1996
Feik SA, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Age trends in remodelling of the femoral midshaft differ between the sexes. J Ortho Res. 14: 590-597. 1996
Feik SA, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Age-related changes in cortical porosity of the midshaft of the human femur Journal of Anatomy 191: 407-416. 1997
Stein M, Thomas CDL, Feik SA, Wark J and Clement JG Bone size and mechanics at the femoral diaphysis across age and sex Journal of Biomechanics 31:1101-1110. 1998
Stein M, Feik SA, Thomas CDL, Clement JG and Wark J An automated analysis of intracortical porosity in human femoral bone across age. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 14:624-632 1999
Liu Z-Q, Liew HL, Clement JG, Thomas CDL Bone image segmentation IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 46:565-573 1999
Thomas CDL, Stein MS, Feik SA, Wark JD, and Clement JG Determination of age at death using combined morphology and histology of the femur. Journal of Anatomy, 196:463-471. 2000.
Feik SA, Thomas CDL, Bruns R and Clement JG Regional variation in cross-sectional geometry in the femoral mid-shaft: sex and age differences. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 112:191-205. 2000.
Goldman HM, Blayvas A, Boyde A, Howell PGT, Clement JG and Bromage TG Correlative light and backscattered electron microscopy of bone – Part II: Automated image analysis Scanning 22:337-344. 2000.
Bell KL, Loveridge N, Reeve J, Thomas CDL, Feik SA and Clement JG Super-osteons (remodelling clusters) in the cortex of the femoral shaft: influence of age and gender The Anatomical Record 264:378-386 2001
Atsuchi M, Noguchi K, Kubota S, Imaizumi K, Sakurada K, Yoshino M, Fraser NL, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Evaluation of morphometric matching for the identification of Caucasian faces from blurred images Japanese Journal of Science and Technology in Identification 6(2) 2002.
Yoshino M, Noguchi K, Atsuchi M, Kubota S, Imaizumi K, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Individual identification of disguised faces by morphometrical matching Forensic Science International 127 97-103 2002
Goldman HM, Bromage TG, Boyde A, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Intrapopulation Variability in Mineralization Density at the Human Femoral Mid-Shaft Journal of Anatomy 203:243-255 2003
Fraser NL, Yoshino M, Imaizumi K, Blackwell SA, Thomas CDL and Clement JG A Japanese computer-assisted facial identification system successfully identifies non-Japanese faces Forensic Science International 135:122-128 2003
Stephan CN, Clement JG, Owen CD, Dobrostanski T and Owen A A new rig for standardized craniofacial photography put to the test. Plast Reconstr Surg 113 (3): 827-833. 2004
Shaweesh Ashraf I, Thomas CDL and Clement JG Delineation of facial archetypes by 3D averaging Annals of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons 17:73-79 2004
Nicholls ME, Ellis BE, Clement JG and Yoshino M Detecting hemifacial asymmetries in emotional expression with three-dimensional computerized image analysis. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 271 1540 663-8. 2004
Yoshino M, Taniguchi M, Imaizumi K, Miyasaka S, Tanijiri T, Yano H, Thomas, CDL, Clement JG A new retrieval system for database of 3D facial images Forensic Science International 148(2-3):113-20 2005
Goldman HM, Thomas CDL, Clement JG and Bromage TG Relationships among microstructural properties of bone at the human mid-shaft femur. Journal of Anatomy 206:127-139 2005
Thomas CDL, Feik SA and Clement JG Regional variation of intracortical porosity in the mid-shaft of the human femur: sex and age differences Journal of Anatomy 206:115-125 2005
Mayhew PM, Thomas CDL, Clement JG, Loveridge N, Beck TJ, Bonfield W and Reeve J Relation between age, femoral neck cortical stability, and hip fracture risk The Lancet 366, Issue 9480, 9 July 2005, 129-135
Shaweesh AIM, Clement JG, Thomas CDL and Bankier A Construction and use of facial archetypes in anthropology and syndrome diagnosis Forensic Science International 159S1:S175-S185 2006
Thomas CDL, Feik SA and Clement JG Increase in pore area, and not pore density, is the main determinant in the development of porosity in human cortical bone In Press, Journal of Anatomy March 2006
Cooper DML, Thomas CDL, Clement JG and Hallgrímsson B 3D micro-CT imaging of BMU-related resorption spaces in human cortical bone The Anatomical Record Part A, 288A: 806-816, 2006
Clement JG, Winship V, Ceddia J, Al-Amad S, Morales A and Hill AJ New software for computer-assisted dental-data matching in Disaster Victim Identification and long-term missing persons investigations: “DAVID Web” Forensic Science International 159S1:S24-S29. 2006
Blackwell SA, Taylor RV, Gordon I, Ogleby CL, Tanijiri T, Yoshino M, Donald MR, Clement JG 3-D imaging and quantitative comparison of human dentitions and simulated bite marks. Int J Legal Med. Jan 4: 1-9. 2006
Hedges REM, Clement JG, Thomas CDL, O’Connell TC Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft modelled using environmental radiocarbon tracer measurements American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133:2 808-816, 2007
Cooper DML, Thomas CDL, Clement JG, Turinsky AL, Sensen CW and Hallgrímsson B Age-dependent change in the 3D structure of cortical porosity at the human femoral midshaft Bone 40:957-965 2007
HM Goldman, SC McFarlin, DML Cooper, CDL Thomas and JG Clement Ontogenetic patterning of cortical bone microstructure and geometry at the human mid-shaft The Anatomical Record 292:48-64 2008
Thomas CD, Mayhew PM, Power J, Poole KES, Loveridge N, Clement JG, Burgoyne CJ, and Reeve J Femoral Neck Trabecular Bone: Loss with age and role in preventing fracture Published electronically Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 2009 10.1359/jbmr.090504
Britz HM, Thomas CDL, Clement JG, and Cooper DML The relation of human femoral osteon geometry to age, sex, height and weight Bone 45:1 77- 83 2009
Donaldson FE, Pankaj P, Cooper DM, Thomas CDL, Clement JG, and Simpson HA. Relating age and micro-architecture with apparent-level elastic constants: A mu FE study of female cortical bone from the anterior femoral midshaft. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H, Journal of Engineering in Medicine. (Accepted Nov 2010).
Beckett S. Rogers K., Clement JG. Inter-species variation in bone mineral behaviour upon heating. J. Foren. Sci. accepted for publication (2011)
Rogers K., Beckett S., Kuhn S., Chamberlain, A., Clement JG. Contrasting the 'Crystallinity' of heated and diagenetically altered bone mineral. Palaeo, Palaeo, Palaeo, accepted for publication (2010)
BOOKS
Clement JG and Ranson DL Eds Craniofacial Identification in Forensic Medicine, Publisher: Arnold, London 1998 306 pages. 1998
Clement JG and Marks M Eds Computer Graphic Facial Reconstruction. Elsevier Academic Press Burlington USA 2005, ISBN 0-12-473051-5
