Professor Angel Carracedo
(President of MAFS)

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Mediterranean Academy of Forensic Sciences (MAFS), it is a great honor for me to welcome you to the 5th International MAFS meeting to be held in Madeira Island in the City of Funchal (Portugal). Other scientific will be taking simultaneously, namely the 19th Triennial International of the International Association of Forensic Sciences (IAFS) and the 9th Triennial Meeting of the World Police Medical Meeting (WPMO).

MAFS is a new but extraordinary active society founded in 2003 with the main aim to realize an exchange of information and collaboration among experts in Forensic Sciences (forensic psychiatry, bioethics, legal odontology, genetics, fingerprinting, toxicology, ballistics, materials analysis, digital reconstruction, legal medicine, criminology) with the goal to improve the actual strategies to prevent the crime in its various forms and to discover and to deliver the offenders to justice with an scope mainly based in Mediterranean countries, that share due to historical reasons and geographic proximity common problems. But MAFS is a society also open to collaboration with other countries in the world and the MAFS meetings have always been an opportunity not only to discuss common problems in the area but for scientific exchange and cooperation with experts from all over the world.

For this reason we have decided to accept the kind offer of Prof. Duarte Nuno Vieira to join our biennial congress with the other scientific events that are going to be held simultaneously in Madeira. This would be for us an opportunity to learn from the most recognized specialists in the field and to share ideas and strategies with other countries and areas in the world that will probably have similar problems of education, translation and scientific research.

Further information on the MAFS scientific program and the programs of the other events can be found at www.iafs2011.mj.pt and http://www.mafs.info where you can also register and to get information about how to reach Funchal.

We hope that the meeting will not only be a time for sharing and learning, but also an enriching experience in the human aspects as it will be a new opportunity to spend a pleasant time with our colleagues from all over the world, to share our mutual interest in scientific topics, and to see Madeira’s beautiful landscapes and sense the cordiality of its people.

On behalf of the MAFS organizing committee I would like to once again welcome all of you in Funchal-Madeira.

Warmest wishes

Prof. Angel Carracedo

MAFS President