Michael Freeman, Med.Dr., PhD, MPH
Forensic Medicine and Epidemiology Expert
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
Expert in Causation, Injury, Death and Disease Investigation
Michael Freeman, Med.Dr., PhD, MPH, is the past David Jenkins Professor and Chair of forensic and legal medicine with the Royal College of Physicians, London, in the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, as well as a tenured Associate Professor of Forensic Medicine and Epidemiology at Maastricht University Medical Center and Affiliate Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine and past Research Chair for the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. His work focuses on the use of epidemiologic methods and data in forensic medicine, particularly in relation to questions of cause of injury, death, and disease.
Biography
Michael Freeman, Med.Dr., PhD, MPH, is the past David Jenkins Professor and Chair of forensic and legal medicine with the Royal College of Physicians, London, in the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, as well as a tenured Associate Professor of Forensic Medicine and Epidemiology at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and Affiliate Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine and past Research Chair for the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. His area of interest is the use of epidemiologic methods and data in forensic medicine, particularly as they may relate to questions of cause of injury, death, and disease.
Dr. Freeman is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, and the American College of Epidemiology, among others. He has provided expert testimony more than 2,000 times in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases, including injury and death litigation, automotive and other product liability, toxic tort litigation, life expectancy, and medical negligence cases, as well as homicide, assault, and other criminal matters.
He has served as a cause of death expert to five attorneys general in the United States for death in police custody cases, including the investigation of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. He is also a member of the Maryland Attorney General-appointed audit panel that has designed a review of deaths in custody investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland from 1993 to 2020.
Dr. Freeman has published around 240 scientific papers, books, and book chapters, primarily focusing on issues relating to cause of death, injury, and disease investigation in forensic medicine. His work has also addressed injury biomechanics, orthopedic applications of adult autologous stem cells, the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and other topics.
Dr. Freeman holds a doctor of medicine degree, Med.Dr., from Umeå University in Sweden, a PhD and master’s in public health in epidemiology from Oregon State University, and a master’s in forensic medical sciences from the University of Verona and the Academy for Forensic Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom, among others. He completed a two-year fellowship in forensic pathology at Umeå University and the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner, and is a past U.S. Fulbright Fellow with the U.S. Department of State in forensic medicine.