Elizabeth Dinkele is an assistant lecturer in the Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology in 2021. She is involved with teaching and student supervision in the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Biomedical Forensic Science course. In addition to this she is designing curriculum for the new Biomedical Forensic Honours course that commences in 2022.

Elizabeth attained a Masters in Clinical Anatomy (UCT) and is in the process of completing her doctorate in Biological Anthropology under the supervision of Associate Professor Victoria Gibbon (Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology (UCT)) and Dr. Robea Ballo (Division of Cellular Biology (UCT)). Her doctorate examines the distribution and determinants of a rare disease called Mseleni Joint Disease which is localised to a community in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. More information about this research can be found here: http://www.anatomybioanth.uct.ac.za/mseleni-joint-disease 

Although her doctorate focuses on a population health and epidemiology, her research interests include forensic science. She is particularly interested in using metric, nonmetric and geometric morphometric data in three-dimensional statistical modelling to identify markers of illness and individualising characteristics for the purposes of identification in a South African context. Elizabeth has practical experience in medicolegal death investigations due to her role as a senior member of the Forensic Anthropology Cape Town (FACT) Laboratory. She has facilitated in more than 25 forensic cases with the Forensic Pathology Services and the South African Police Services over the previous 6 years.

Recent publications:
Dinkele ES, Ballo R, Fredlund V, Ramesar R, Gibbon V. 2020. Mseleni joint disease: an endemic arthritis of unknown cause. The Lancet Rheumatology 2(1): e8-e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(19)30104-3
Tawha T, Dinkele ES, Mole C, Gibbon VE. 2020. Assessing zygomatic shape and size for estimating sex and ancestry in a South African sample. Science & Justice 60: 284-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2020.01.003