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
BAHID held its inaugural scientific meeting at the University of Glasgow, laying the foundations for an interdisciplinary professional group dedicated to human identification
BAHID’s strength in cross-disciplinary work was reflected in its involvement with the textbook Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction, bringing together expertise across multiple identification disciplines
To enhance discipline-specific standards and accreditation, BAHID helped launched associations such as the British Association for Forensic Anthropology (BAFA) under its umbrella, strengthening professional development in that field
The organisation hosts annual Conferences, which by 2019 had become key fixtures in the forensic calendar—featuring oral presentations on novel identification techniques