Gabriela Boneva

Gabriela Boneva is a researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence, and Organised Crime Research. Her main research interests are within the domains of crime prevention, ballistics, forensics, and crime scene investigations. Gabriela holds an MSc Forensic Ballistics degree from Cranfield University, as part of her training was conducted at the Defence Academy of the UK, and a BSc (Hons) Forensic Science with Criminology degree from the University of Greenwich. Her individual research includes the experimental testing of the effects of tangential gunshots on combat helmets and the behind helmet blunt trauma. Although there is a number of reported cases where military personnel were shot in the helmet without sustaining any injuries, there is a lack of research. The study fills in this gap and proposes future developments. Additionally, she has experimentally researched the different methods for development of latent finger marks deposited onto highly oxidised metal surfaces – one of the more challenging surfaces for fingerprint experts – and successfully identified a viable technique. Gabriela’s big passion is conducting various research in the wide domain of crime by applying her experience in designing and conducting experiments and performing quantitative and qualitative analyses.