Session Chairs: Lim Jong Lee Wendy (Health Sciences Authority, Singapore) & Vanitha Kunalan (Department of Chemistry, Malaysia)
Please note that the symposium is aimed at forensic science laboratory personnel and will discuss topics from a scientific perspective.
The symposium will be held virtually on the WebEx platform which can be accessed via a web browser, the WebEx web app or a mobile app. If using the WebEx mobile app, it is recommended that the latest version is installed to ensure full functionality.
Please register separately for each session you would like to attend. After registering you will receive a link to join the session.
For enquiries about the symposium, please contact unodc-globalsmart@un.org
Bogumiła Byrska graduated obtaining a M.Sc. in chemistry at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland in 2004. In 2019, she obtained a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences at the Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Collegium Medicum. She works as an Expert Witness in Toxicology Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances at the Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow, Poland. Her research focuses on Novel Psychoactive Substances and analysis of the drug market in Poland and she is a co-author of research articles in this field. She also leads courses in Forensic Toxicology for students and graduates.
Vanitha Kunalan is a senior scientific officer at the Department of Chemistry in Malaysia. She obtained her PhD in Forensic Science from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom, in 2010. From 2004 till 2020 she has been involved in routine drug analysis and reports the findings for drug cases received from law enforcement agencies. Apart from that, her duties include carrying out investigations in clandestine drug laboratory cases and giving testimony in court as an expert witness. Her scientific interests are in the field of methamphetamine profiling, new designer drugs and clandestine drug laboratory investigation. She collaborates with United Nation Drugs on Crime (UNODC) as a focal person in sharing scientific data relating to drugs in the region. She also actively participated in Asian Forensic Sciences Network (AFSN) and was appointed as Chairperson in Illicit Drug Workgroup (IDWG) for term 2022-2024. Her collaboration with local universities and active participation in research lead to publications of research papers in journals and presentations at international conferences. Beside as a technical expert, she is also a qualified assessor for ANAB ISO/IEC 17025:2017. In 2020 she was appointed as the Director of the Narcotics Division at the Department of Chemistry, Malaysia. She supervised the narcotics cases received by all the 13 branch laboratories of the Department of Chemistry in Malaysia.
Lim Jong Lee Wendy is the Division Director of the Illicit Drugs Laboratory, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore and has about 25 years of experience working in the field of Illicit Drugs analysis. She leads and directs the work direction, scientific training, and supervision of a team of officers who performs a wide variety of scientific analysis to ensure unequivocal identification of illicit drugs including NPS. During her career, Wendy had been invited as an expert trainer for local and regional trainings and she also actively supports UNODC in their programmes and review of their technical manuals. Wendy is the Vice-Chair of the Illicit Drugs Working Group of the Asian Forensic Sciences Network (AFSN) between the period of 2018– 2024. She is also an associate member of the European Network of Forensic Science Institute Drugs (ENFSI) Working Group and a member of the Clandestine Laboratory Investigating Chemists Association (CLIC).
Ms. Shuk-mei Leung has been employed in the Forensic Science Division of the Government Laboratory in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China since 2002. During her tenure, she has worked in various sections covering different disciplines, involving Controlled Drugs, Forensic Toxicology, and Scene of Crime & Quality Management. Ms. Leung is currently a Senior Chemist in the Controlled Drugs Section. She leads a team of professional and technical staff to provide comprehensive analytical services to law enforcement departments for enforcing the control of drugs and their chemical precursors. Besides, the Controlled Drugs Section also assists law enforcement departments by attending illicit drug manufacturing scenes in collecting exhibits and later provides expert opinion reports.
Roy Gerona finished his BS Chemistry degree at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He then specialized in biochemistry and molecular neuroscience, and clinical chemistry during his graduate and post-graduate training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor at UCSF, where he runs and directs the Clinical Toxicology and Environmental Biomonitoring Laboratory and the TB Hair Analysis Laboratory. In his research, Dr. Gerona divides his time in the applications of mass spectrometry into three research areas- new psychoactive substance (NPS aka designer drugs) analysis and surveillance, environmental chemical biomonitoring, and MDR-TB therapeutic drug monitoring. His laboratory serves as the reference laboratory for the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Toxicology Testing (DEATOX) program that conducts surveillance on NPS and synthetic drug intoxication across the United States. Dr. Gerona is currently a Balik Scientist Program (BSP) awardee being hosted by the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila College of Pharmacy and the UP Drugs of Abuse Research Laboratory. His BSP project aims to establish a National Center for Drug Analysis at UP Manila. The ultimate goal envisioned for NCDA is to provide analytical expertise and services through mass spectrometry in three research applications: (1) recreational and designer drugs analysis and surveillance, (2) drug discovery and development, and (3) natural products analysis.