Queensland DNA lab chief Linzi Wilson-Wilde told to fix ’Professor’ claim
The new scientist in charge of Queensland‘s DNA lab, Linzi Wilson-Wilde, has been routinely calling herself ‘Professor’ despite having only adjunct status, against university policy.
The new scientist in charge of Queensland’s DNA lab, Linzi Wilson-Wilde, has been routinely calling herself “Professor” despite having only adjunct status, against university policy.
Dr Wilson-Wilde has been asked by Flinders University in South Australia to stop calling herself “Professor” after The Weekend Australian raised questions about the credential ahead of a new commission of inquiry that is expected to closely examine her work and conduct.
Queensland government ministers and the health department have referred to Dr Wilson-Wilde by the title “Professor”, representing the pinnacle of academic work, since she was appointed to oversee all of the state’s forensic services last December.
Rather than being a full professor, Dr Wilson-Wilde is an adjunct professor at Flinders, a title that came with her former position as head of Forensic Science SA. A Flinders spokeswoman said that following questions from The Weekend Australian, the university contacted Dr Wilson-Wilde this week about its policy that people awarded an adjunct title should use the full title.
“That is, adjunct professor, not simply professor,” the spokeswoman said. “I’ve been told that we have contacted Adjunct Professor Wilson-Wilde with advice on the appropriate title and that she is amending her various public profiles.”
Public hearings will begin on Monday in a new inquiry ordered by Health Minister Shannon Fentiman into a DNA testing scandal embroiling Dr Wilson-Wilde less than a year after she was handpicked to rebuild the strife-torn Queensland lab.
The inquiry was called after The Australian revealed a flawed DNA extraction method was introduced in 2007 despite the lab knowing it was catastrophically failing to recover DNA, and it may have missed vital evidence in tens of thousands of criminal cases over the next nine years.
Independent forensic biologist Kirsty Wright has blamed the automated method for the failure to solve the savage stabbing murder of Shandee Blackburn in 2013.
The state government has already announced it will review a further 7000 cases as a result of the serious new issues in the lab, only discovered following retired judge Walter Sofronoff KC’s inquiry last year.
Dr Wilson-Wilde examined the automated extraction method for the Sofronoff inquiry but failed in her expert report to detail the serious problems it was having in recovering DNA. She insists she was assigned to look at a separate issue of the DNA extraction method cross-contaminating crime scene samples.
Retired Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett SC is leading the short and sharp inquiry that is due to provide a final report in just three weeks time.
“This commission of inquiry is so that everyone can have confidence in the Professor and in the lab going forward,” Ms Fentiman said when calling the inquiry.
Some Flinders online directories this week listed Dr Wilson-Wilde as “Professor”, but the university spokeswoman said these were being updated to reflect the true position.
Since 2011, Flinders has bestowed the title of adjunct professor to the incumbent director of Forensic Science SA “as recognition of the historic ongoing collaboration between the two organisations”, she said.
In Dr Wilson-Wilde’s reports to the 2022 Sofronoff inquiry she listed under current positions “Flinders University: Professor of Forensic Science”.
She described herself as “professor” throughout the inquiry reports, on LinkedIn, and in a DNA inquiry progress report last month, leading senior scientists to raise concerns with The Weekend Australian about her title being misrepresented.
A Queensland Health spokesman said on Friday that Dr Wilson-Wilde’s “honorary academic title was not a factor in her appointment”, and for the first time referred to her as an adjunct professor rather than professor.
The spokesman also defended a decision to hire Dr Wilson-Wilde without a full and open recruitment process including national and international advertising, saying it was done in accordance with government processes.
“Adjunct Professor Linzi Wilson-Wilde OAM was appointed chief executive officer of Forensic Science Queensland because she is recognised internationally as being one of the best in her field,” the spokesman said.
“She was approached and selected because she was a lead expert in the initial Commission of Inquiry, her skills in forensic services are exemplary, and she has vast experience in leading major organisations.”
Dr Wilson-Wilde had “done an excellent job … and has made significant inroads into reforming Queensland’s forensic and DNA testing regime”, he said.
There is a history of universities intervening when adjunct professors shorten their titles.
In 2013, the Gold Coast’s Bond University said it was struggling to stop tycoon Clive Palmer from calling himself “Professor Palmer” after awarding him an honorary accolade of adjunct professor.
And in 2014, The Guardian news website reported that the Department of Finance’s then top official, Jane Halton, was being contacted by two universities over her use of the term “professor” in apparent breach of their policies when she was an adjunct.
Australian Association of University Professors president Jill Blackmore said it often took 20 years of work at a university to become a professor, and the title should not be adopted by adjunct professors.
“A lot of people do that – they seem to think that once they get the title they can just drop the adjunct,” Professor Blackmore said.
“It’s not acceptable, because then people assume in the public that they have been in a particular role and that they have certain authority.”
A professor of education at Deakin University, Professor Blackmore is also an Alfred Deakin Professor, the most prestigious honour bestowed on staff. Emphasising that she was commenting generally, rather than on an individual, Professor Blackmore said most academics valued and wanted to be professors.
“They know what goes into becoming a professor, so they would expect that person to use the title appropriately,” she said.
“It’s quite a long slog to get there, and a lot of academics don’t ever make it to be professors. So to see that title just being assumed by other people who haven’t had to go through the same types of academic hoops that everybody else has, it’s degrading the title.”
Dr Wilson-Wilde did not respond to requests for comment.
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