astronomy

Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome

Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome rather than just read about it. In short: Susan Margaret Black, Baroness Black of Strome (née Gunn; born 7 May 1961) is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Key takeaways

Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Susan Margaret Black, Baroness Black of Strome (née Gunn; born 7 May 1961) is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist and academic. She was the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University and is past President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. From 2003 to 2018 she was Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. She is President of St John's College, Oxford. She was inducted into the Order of the Thistle in Edinburgh on 3 July 2024.

Early life and education Susan Margaret Gunn was born on 7 May 1961 in Inverness, Scotland. She was educated at Inverness Royal Academy, a state secondary school in Inverness. She then attended the University of Aberdeen from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with honours in Human Anatomy in 1982, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree for her thesis on "Identification from the Human Skeleton" in 1986.

Career and research In 1987, she was appointed a lecturer in Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital, London, which started her career in forensic anthropology, serving in this role until 1992. Between 1992 and 2003, she undertook contract work variously for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the United Nations involving the identification of victims and perpetrators of various conflicts. In 1999, she became the lead forensic anthropologist to the British Forensic Team in Kosovo, deployed by the FCO on behalf of the United Nations, and later that year deployed to Sierra Leone and Grenada. In 2003, she undertook two tours to Iraq. In 2005, she participated in the United Kingdom's contribution to the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification operation (jointly led by the Thai and Australian Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams) as part of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami international response. In 2003, Black was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee. In 2005, she created the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee (CAHID), which runs undergraduate courses in forensic anthropology and postgraduate courses in anatomy and advanced forensic anthropology. Her department trained the UK National Disaster Victim Identification (UK DVI) team for police and scientists in advanced mortuary practices. Black has been an innovator in developing techniques and building databases to confirm or disconfirm someone's identity based on photographs of their hands or arms. This technique has become important for the prosecution of paedophiles, who often take and share photographs of their actions. In 2009, Black used vein pattern analysis to confirm the identity of a suspected child abuser, who then pleaded guilty. It was the first time that the technique was used in a criminal conviction. Black was a Director of the Centre for International Forensic Assistance and a founder of the British Association for Human Identification and the British Association for Forensic Anthropology. In June 2018, Black left Dundee for Lancaster University, where she had been appointed pro-vice-chancellor for engagement. On 23 July 2021, it was announced that she had been elected the next President of St John's College, Oxford.

House of Lords In 2021, she was appointed to the House of Lords as a crossbencher life peer. On 26 April 2021, she was created Baroness Black of Strome, of Strome in the County of Ross-shire. On 15 June 2021, she made her maiden speech in the Lords during a debate on the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill.

Media Black starred in BBC Two's History Cold Case, which aired two series between 2010 and 2011. In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the UK by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and in 2014 was also subject of The Life Scientific on the same station. In 2014, she appeared in the documentary After the Wave: Ten years since the Boxing Day Tsunami examining the forensic response in Thailand to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In October 2015, Black was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her choices include The Corries, Glenn Miller, Gerry Rafferty, Dire Straits and Cher. Her favourite was "Highland Cathedral" by Lathallan School. In July 2018, Black was the guest on the BBC's Hard Talk. Black delivered the 2022 series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, with the title "Secrets of Forensic Science". In April 2024 (repeated March 2025), Black contributed to the BBC Radio 3 series Private Passions, outlining the relationship among her life, her work, and the music she enjoys.

Personal life Black married Tom, who attended the same school as she did; they have two daughters. Black also has an older daughter from her first marriage to Ian MacLaughlin. She is patron of a number of charities including Locate International, Escape2Make and Archaeology Scotland.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome

In research: Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 20th-century British anthropologists, 20th-century Scottish scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome in simple terms?

Why does Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome.