Dr Lucinda Davenport holds a joint position within King’s, encompassing research, casework and teaching.

In her role as a forensic scientist within the DNA analysis at King’s accredited laboratory her casework activities are predominantly aligned towards resolving complex kinship cases. This work has complemented the research that she undertook during her PhD with her thesis titled: “Investigating the utility of massively parallel sequencing for implementation into complex kinship analysis”.

During her time as a PhD student, Lucinda was awarded a research scholarship from the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, as well as the prize for the best oral presentation at her first international conference in 2018 (the English Speaking Working Group Meeting of the ISFG in St Petersburg, Russia).

Since the completion of her PhD in 2024, Lucinda has also taken on a role as a postdoctoral research associate, with a particular research focus on the application of massively parallel sequencing technology to forensically relevant questions. In this role, she currently supervises two PhD students, exploring the potential for metagenomic analysis to be used as an intelligence tool in forensic investigations and evaluating the performance of mid- and large-scale genetic marker panels for human identification in missing person related kinship scenarios.

Lucinda is also one of 2 UK-based members of the Microhaplotype-working group, and the STRAND STR sequence working group which are both international partnerships focussed on setting standards for the use of these markers in forensic investigations.

In addition to her research and casework responsibilities, Lucinda also plays an active role in forensic science education at KCL. Lucinda acts as the module lead for the Forensic Genetics module on the Forensic Science MSc programme and the Introduction to Forensic Science second-year undergraduate module. She also contributes to teaching and supervision of research projects across additional MSc and BSc modules.