At the annual meeting, the Young Scientists Committee of TIAFT presents the awards for best oral and poster presentations, and the best paper published, by a Young Scientist.
Award 2026
Nomination process and deadline will be announced later in 2026.
Eligible Persons
- The candidate must be the first author of the oral/poster abstract or the scientific paper;
- The candidate must be a TIAFT member;
- The candidate must not be a member of the TIAFT YSC;
- Candidates working in the same organization as a TIAFT YSC member are eligible;
- For the oral/poster abstract, the candidate must not be older than 40 years on the last day of the TIAFT meeting;
- For the best scientific paper, the candidate must not be older than 40 years on the 1st Jan of the corresponding year, and the article must have been published in the period of one month before the last TIAFT meeting until the deadline for the entries of the current TIAFT meeting, with the condition that the paper needs to be at least e-published and available to the scientific community;
- Only one entry is allowed per applicant. The applicant must choose either a poster, oral, or published paper for consideration. Only one choice is allowed, in order for the awards to be shared amongst all qualified young scientists;
- Oral, poster, or paper presentations that include a member of the TIAFT YSC as a co-author may still be submitted for consideration of an award; however, the co-author that is a TIAFT YSC member will be excluded from judging that entry;
- The candidate must submit his/her abstract or manuscript to the YSC at least one month prior to the commencement of the annual TIAFT meeting;
- The candidate must not be a TIAFT YSC award recipient from a previous year.
Nominations
Abstracts for oral presentations, poster presentations or papers must be submitted to the TIAFT YSC President and Secretary by e-mail.
All submissions must be received by the TIAFT YSC one month prior to the commencement of the TIAFT Annual Meeting, but we suggest submitting your abstract to the YSC as soon as you know it has been accepted and the call for nominations open. Late entries will not be accepted.
The abstract submitted to the TIAFT YSC must not differ from the abstract accepted for the meeting or it will be subject to disqualification.
The YSC will consider a total of 15 candidates for oral presentations per year, 15 candidates for poster presentations per year, and all papers submitted (no maximum). If more abstracts are submitted than the limit in place, the YSC will review them and evaluate scientific content (5 points), impact of the work on the field of forensic toxicology (3 points) and clarity (2 points) to retain the 15 abstracts with the highest scores.
Evaluation Criteria
More detailed award assessment criteria and evaluation procedures are available in the Young Scientist Committee Handbook.
Oral and poster presentations are evaluated on following criteria:
- Knowledge of the subject material;
- Structure of the presentation or poster;
- Use of audio/visual material;
- Delivery (including pace and timing);
- Ability to answer questions.
Best published paper is evaluated on following criteria:
- Scientific content;
- Structure of the paper.
Award
The winners of the Young Scientists Best Oral Presentation, Best Poster Presentation and Best Paper will be announced at the end of the TIAFT Annual Meeting. The award consists of a signed certificate plus an amount of $500 USD.
Award Committee
The Young Scientists Committee members evaluate the oral presentations, poster presentations, and papers.
Previous awardees
| Year | Best Paper | Best Oral | Best Poster |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Liam J Ward, Sweden | Michael Scholz, Switzerland | Axelle Timmerman, Belgium |
| 2023 | Mingyu Kim, Republic of Korea | Andre Luis Fabris, Brazil | Laura Franke, Germany |
| 2022 | Marthe Vandeputte, Belgium | Tom Dario Schneider, Switzerland | Giacomo Musile, Italy |
| 2021 | Lana Brockbals, Switzerland | Liesl Janssens, Belgium | Maarten Quireyns, Belgium |
| 2020 | Tanja Gampfer, Germany | Stefania Oliverio, Luxembourg | Olwen Groth, Germany |
| 2019 | Nadine Schäfer, Germany | Jingya (Jinni) Yan, Australia | Kathleen Rice, United Kingdom |
| 2018 | Marco Elmiger, Switzerland | Shimpei Watanabe, Sweden | Lilian Richter, Germany |
| 2017 | Annelies Cannaert, Belgium | Lukas Mogler, Germany | Alice Seywright, United Kingdom |
| 2016 | Florian Franz, Germany | Svante Vikingsson, Sweden | Laura M. Huppertz, Germany |
| 2015 | Michael Poetzsch, Switzerland | Brigitte Desharnais, Canada | Verena Angerer, Germany |
| 2014 | Luke N. Rodda, Australia | Eva Cuypers, Belgium | Noriaki Shima, Japan |
| 2013 | Ji-Hyun Kim, Korea | Milena Madry, Switzerland | Ariane Wohlfarth, United States |
| 2012 | Andrea E. Schwaninger, Germany & Melanie Hutter, Germany (Springer Award) | Lars Ambach, Switzerland | Not awarded |
| 2011 | Daniela Remane, Germany | Eva Saar, Australia | Bjoern Moosmann, Germany |
| 2010 | Rafael Linden, Brazil | Dirk K. Wissenbach, Germany | Simon Beuck, Germany |
| 2009 | Sophie Turfus, United Kingdom | Yuko Iwata, Japan | Alina Staub, Switzerland & Jennifer Pascali, Italy (Springer Award) |
| 2008 | Ahmed I. Al-Asmari, United Kingdom | Markus R. Meyer, Germany | Ricardo J. Dinis-Oliveira, Portugal |
| 2007 | Uta Kuepper, Germany | Andreas Ewald, Germany | Jurgen Kempf, Germany |
| 2006 | Donata Favretto, Italy | Gudrun Høiseth, Norway | Julia Jung, Germany |
| 2005 | Teemu Gunnar, Finland | Dennis Theobald, Germany | Vilma Habrdova, Czech Republic |
| 2004 | Michelle Wood, United Kingdom | Jochen Beyer, Germany | Eugene Schwilke, United States |
| 2003 | Frank T. Peters, Germany | Adam Cawley, Australia | Emmie Ho, China |
| 2002 | Thomas Stimpfl, Austria | Carsten Kratzsch, Germany | Simon Elliott, United Kingdom |
| 2001 | Nele Samyn, Belgium | Roland Staack, Germany | Not awarded |
| 2000 | Robert Kronstrand, Sweden | Riet Dams, Belgium | Liliana Bachs, Norway & Kristel Girod, Switzerland |
| 1999 | Akira Ishii, Japan | Inge Dirinck, Belgium | Ingrid Bosman, Netherlands |