Forensic artwork goes on display

One student has reconstructed the face of an Egyptian mummy

The first graduates from the world's only degree course in Forensic Art are displaying their work in Dundee.

The pieces include the reconstructed face of an Egyptian mummy and new portraits of 18th century criminals.

Forensic artists can help agencies like the police build up an idea of what a suspect or a victim would have looked like even if many years have passed.

They use techniques like facial reconstruction, age progression and composite art.

Convener of the course at Dundee University, Greg Mahoney, worked as a forensic artist in the Boston Police Department for more than 20 years.

'Highly qualified'

He said: "I am delighted to see our first cohort of graduates come through the course with such an interesting and varied range of projects.

"They will leave as the most highly qualified new practitioners in this field. I know many professionals, myself included, who wish this course had been available at the start of their careers."

Senior lecturer Dr Caroline Wilkinson added: "Our work crosses all sorts of boundaries, from current criminal investigations to delving into history, and from developing facial recognition software to, as we see in the Masters Show, developing a new surgical training model for the other end of the body, helping train clinicians in colo-rectal cancer procedures.

"The combination of forensic science and art is one which has fantastic potential - the sort of potential we are seeing realised by our students."

The artwork will be on display as part of the Masters Show in the Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College until 18 September.