About Us
A message from the President
Welcome to the BAHID website and to the Association, whether you are already a member or not.
BAHID is a professional organisation which brings together people from a wide range of disciplines, interested in the general field of human identification. It is a field which is a lot wider than most people might imagine; indeed, imagination is the name of the game, and the range of subject matters encompassed increases by the year and continually surprises. Whether you are an established academic, a researcher or still a student, you will find something of interest, as will those practising in the medico-legal field (like myself), in the mortuary, in the police or elsewhere.
The main focus of BAHID’s activities is the yearly or half-yearly scientific meeting, structured as it is around presentations from invited speakers and from its own members, the latter with the opportunity to share their own work and to do so within a friendly setting. I never come away from these sessions other than being a great deal more informed about everything!
Equally important with any meeting is the accompanying social interaction and BAHID goes out of its way to ensure this. Careers have been made by casual conversations in a coffee break and professional friendships routinely established. Everyone will be made to feel welcome at the time and hopefully will want to come back.
I look forward to meeting as many as possible at the next meeting and in those to come.
Dr Megan Bassendale – Forensic Guardians International
Laying the foundation for Human Identification collaboration
August 2001 – A small group of experts (led by Peter Vanezis the first President of the Association and Sue Black, the first Secretary) met to consider the desirability and feasibility of encouraging practitioners from the myriad of speciality subjects, to come together under one parental umbrella of Human Identification.
It was clear from that meeting that there was both the will and the need to consolidate the subject.
October 2001 – The inaugural meeting of the British Association for Human Identification was held on the 6th October 2001 at the University of Glasgow.