Charles E.H. Berger

Charles E.H. Berger serves as Professor by Special Appointment in Criminalistics at Leiden University's Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology since November 2011, a position funded by the Stichting Leerstoel Criminalistiek. He concurrently holds a principal scientist position at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), where he contributes to education, R&D strategy, and research on forensic evidence interpretation.

His research program centers on logically sound interpretation of forensic evidence through probability theory and computational methods. Berger specializes in applying Bayesian statistics to forensic anthropology, personal identification, and evidential evaluation. His work emphasizes moving forensic science toward activity-level interpretations while managing contextual information to prevent bias.

Berger plays a pivotal international role as member of ISO technical committee TC272, serving as lead editor for Part 4 (Interpretation) of the ISO-21043 Forensic Sciences standard. His scholarly contributions focus on improving forensic reasoning frameworks and establishing objective evaluation methodologies.

His publications demonstrate consistent engagement with foundational forensic science challenges, particularly in developing statistically rigorous approaches to evidence interpretation that maintain scientific integrity within legal contexts.

Berger actively promotes scientifically sound practices across the criminal justice system, emphasizing the importance of clear communication between forensic scientists, legal professionals, and other stakeholders to ensure proper understanding and application of forensic evidence.