Jason Hollingworth, who was born and raised in Port Macquarie, is developing a technique to extract volatile substances from forensic exhibits.

It could see a significant reduction in the existing extraction timeframe of three to four days.

Mr Hollingworth, a graduate of University of New England - Bachelor of science - major in forensics, is employed by NSW Health Pathology where he works as a forensic scientist at Forensic and Analytical Science Service NSW.

His job is to prepare and analyse forensic exhibits for a variety of evidence types, predominantly but not limited to glass and ignitable liquid residues.

"Forensic glass examinations typically involve a comparison of known and questioned samples to determine if they have a common origin," he said.

"This comparison involves the recognition and evaluation of physical and chemical properties of the glass.

"Forensic ignitable liquid residue examinations generally involve samples associated with suspicious fires where investigators request detection and identification of possible accelerants in samples."

"In addition to this I maintain and troubleshoot problems with scientific equipment."

Mr Hollingworth said his research involves trying to reduce the amount of time it takes to extract volatile substances from forensic exhibits.

"For certain types of samples our current extraction techniques take three to four days.

"This is because evidence such as clothing from the victim or suspect needs to be sealed in an arson bag with thermal desorption tubes (special tubes that absorb volatile substances) to allow a sufficient amount of volatiles to fill the bag and passively absorb onto the thermal desorption tubes which are later tested.

"Through this work, that timeframe could be reduced from three to four days to just a few minutes which will allow police investigations to move more quickly."

Mr Hollingworth said rather than have the volatiles passively absorb onto the tube over a period of days, I have designed a technique to force a concentrated stream of these volatiles onto the tubes quickly by using a vacuum pump.

"I have tested a variety of ignitable liquids using this technique and preliminary results are promising," he said.

"I am currently in the final phases of this project and am validating the technique so It can be used in casework.

"In addition to this I have created a method that shortens the time it takes for the instrument to analyse samples by approximately 15% and a way of automatically importing instrument setup data that reduces transcription errors and saves time as we no longer need to manually setup the instrument each use."

Mr Hollingworth said he is driven by wanting to find ways to improve efficiency without compromising quality.

Forensic examination results are often crucial to police investigations and being able to return these results faster will allow police to proceed with their investigation in a timely manner, he said.

Mr Hollingworth says he was drawn to science as a career because of it involved problem solving.

"That is something I have always enjoyed and having a deep understanding of how and why things work the way that they do really interests me.

"Science is a combination of these things which makes it a great career for me."

The former local student says he enjoys bodyboarding and the gym in his spare time.

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