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Professor Rob Fitzpatrick was awarded the inaugural Raymond Murray Medal by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in recognition of distinguished international contributions to Forensic Geology at the 2025 Forensic Geology Conference in Rome on 21^st May.

Founded in 1961, promotes the study of geological problems that have global significance, while supporting international disciplinary cooperation within Earth sciences. With 121 national members, it is one of the world'd largest scientific organisations.ÌýThey collaborate with Joint Programmes and various global organisations that share a common focus on geological research relevant to governments, industry, and academic institutions.

At the request of the Australian forensic community in 2003, Rob set-up and was the founding Director of the Centre for Australian Forensic Soil Science after providing critical soil evidence that linked the suspect to the crime scene of a double homicide. Rob has since conducted over 250 forensic investigations for law enforcement agencies involving search, location and recovery of earth materials to solve forensic investigations in criminalistic cases.

Rob’s has over 50 years of practice in guiding and providing expertise in multi-disciplinary research projects. During this time, he has gained experience from conducting soil forensic investigations together with development and application of new innovative techniques, methods and strategies to uncover information to solve complex cases has led him to develop the first Soil Forensic Investigation User Manual. The manual has provided international guidelines and best management practice in the use of earth materials as forensic evidence for case assessment and interpretation.

The Medal was awarded in honour of the late Dr Raymond Murray, who is credited as the Founder of Forensic Geology in the 20th Century. The inaugural Raymond Murray Medal was presented to Rob Fitzpatrick by Dr Laurance Donnelly, Chair of the IUGS Initiative on Forensic Geology. The medal features a portrait of Ray, which also appears on the certificate.