Detectives and forensic scientists in Bradford have been discussing how vital skulls, jawbones and even ears are to identifying human remains.

Among 90 people who attended a conference at Bradford University yesterday were post-graduate students, detectives, dentists, who use dental records to identify corpses, and forensic scientists, who had the task of identifying victims of genocide who were dumped in mass graves in Kosovo and Rwanda.

Eight students gave presentations on their latest findings, including PhD student Tim Thompson, of Sheffield University, who studied for an MSc in forensic anthropology at Bradford. He spoke about the effects of burning on bones and how that affected their identification.

Tim, who worked on mass graves in the Balkans, believes scientists have to distance themselves from the awful reality with which they are confronted.

He said: "I did not find my work in the Balkans traumatic but some people take to it easier than others. My job was to help identify individuals from their skeletal remains. You can work out their sex and age of death."

He added: "My department in Sheffield works with the police to identify bodies, many of which have been found by people walking dogs and have been decomposing for several months. It is like piecing together a jigsaw."

Bradford born and bred forensic odontologist Phil Marsden trained as a dentist in London but was always interested in the forensic side of things.

This fascination was fuelled by watching part of the Yorkshire Ripper trial at the Old Bailey when he was a student.

Phil, whose family still live in Bradford, said: "I enjoy what I do. I would not do it if it upset me. The best part is going in to work in the morning and being called away to a murder in the afternoon, which is often more interesting."