Doctoral candidate

Name: John Marty Mateo
Nickname: Marty
Country: Philippines
Bachelor’s Degree: BS Chemistry, University of the Philippines – Los Baños
Master’s Degree: European Master in Quality in Analytical Laboratories (EMQAL)
                               Politechnica Gdanska (Poland)
                               Universidad de Cadiz (Spain)

Profile and Background:

Marty’s research background is in analytical chemistry and machine learning. He is a recipient of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Programme scholarship for his master’s degree. His master’s thesis focused on the classification of gender, race, and age from human scent using stir bar sorptive headspace extraction and GC-MS, combined with various machine learning methods, for forensic applications. Prior to his master’s studies, Marty worked as a researcher at the leading agricultural research institute in the Philippines, where he headed the Analytical Service Laboratory. He also served as a junior faculty member at the University of the Philippines, teaching general and organic chemistry courses. In his free time, Marty enjoys traveling to different countries, watching K-drama series, and different documentaries.

PhD Topic:

Estimating the postmortem interval (PMI_min) using the larval and puparial stages of blow flies is limited to 4–6 months. After this period, especially once adult flies have emerged, empty puparia serve as valuable trace evidence that can persist for years. Since the life cycle varies between species, accurate identification is essential for PMI_min estimation. Given these challenges, this study aims to chemically profile intra-puparial stages and empty puparia of forensically significant fly species (Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, and Muscidae) using GC-MS and FT-IR and apply machine learning techniques to develop predictive models for species identification and PMI_min estimation.