Dr Emerson Callender established Forensic-Engineer.ie to provide independent, technical advice and expert witness services to the legal and insurance professions. He worked at Forensic Science Northern Ireland (an Agency within the Department of Justice) for more than 20 years, specialising in Forensic Collision Investigation and the examination of machinery, vehicles and mechanical components. He managed the Road Traffic Collision Section with responsibility for the forensic investigation of all fatal collisions in Northern Ireland. He examined hundreds of fatal collision scenes, providing detailed forensic reports to the Criminal Justice System, providing expert evidence in coroners, criminal and civil courts on many occasions including a number of high-profile cases. 

He holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin where he was elected a Foundation Scholar, described as the most prestigious undergraduate award in Ireland. The third year of his degree was conducted through German, at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. He went on to obtain a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University of Belfast. He worked in the automotive industry for 6 years in South Carolina, USA and later in Gillingham, Kent, prior to joining Forensic Science Northern Ireland.

He is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a full member of the Institute of Traffic Accident Investigators, the National Association of Professional Accident Reconstruction Specialists and the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis. 

In 2010, he was the External Advisor to De Montfort University, Leicester during the validation of their BSc Degree course in Forensic Road Collision Investigation. 

In 2012, he introduced the use of specialised tools for the download of event data recorders (EDR) before this technology was commercially available in UK/Ireland and organised joint training for investigators from Forensic Science Northern Ireland and the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory.

In his spare time, he collects and restores 1980s and 1990s sports motorbikes with a particular interest in two-stroke models.  He raced motorbikes throughout Ireland for a number of years but has retired from this activity, having gained considerable first-hand experience of motorbike collisions.