Current and former members of the H-Unique team
Current Members
Principal Investigator: Professor Sue Black – Visiting Professor
Professor Dame Sue Black is an anatomist and a forensic anthropologist, specialising in the identification of the individual, in particular in forensic identification of perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
Sue was previously Pro-Vice Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster and is now President of St Johns College, Oxford University but remains the leader of the H-Unique project.
Dr Bryan williams – Anniversary Lecturer in Biometrics
Bryan is a Lecturer in Biometrics and Human Identification with the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University and honorary Lecturer in Ophthalmic Imaging with the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences at the University of Liverpool. He is a mathematician with a focus on computer vision, machine/deep learning, image processing and analysis, feature extraction, and medical device development. In particular, he has many years’ experience in computer vision research, outreach, citizen science and patient and public involvement, with work published in the world-leading venues and winning several awards. He is leading research on the H-Unique project. His key focus is to drive the direction of the research, overall management of the project and to ensure that the aims of the project are realised.
Professor Plamen Angelov
Plamen is a Professor of Intelligent Systems, holds PhD and DSc, is Fellow of IEEE, ELLIS and IET. He was Vice President of the International Neural Network Society (2017-2020) and is currently member of its Board of Governors (BoG). He is also BoG member of the Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society of the IEEE all of which are highly relevant for the H-unique project.
Dr Hossein Rahmani – Senior Lecturer in Data Science
Hossein received his BSc degree in Computer Software Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, in 2004, followed by an MSc in Software Engineering from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran in 2010, and a PhD from the University of Western Australia, in 2016. He has published several papers in top conferences and journals such as CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. He is currently an associate professor (Senior Lecturer) in the School of Computing and Communications. His research interests include computer vision, video analysis, pose estimation, 3D shape analysis, and deep learning. He is a Co-I of the H-Unique project.
Dr Zheheng Jiang – Senior Research Associate
Zheheng received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from University of Leicester, in 2021. His research interests include image processing, computer vision and machine learning. In the H-Unique project, he is responsible for algorithm development of vein pattern recognition and matching, and 2D/3D hand pose and shape estimation from an image.
Ricki Boswell-Challand – Database Manager
Ricki graduated in Computer-Aided Physics at Lancaster after which he developed a long career in commercial software development and industrial R&D, with a background in database design, system integration and image management. He returned to Lancaster specifically to join the H-Unique project where as database manager he designs, builds and maintains the systems for collecting, maintaining and managing project contributions and research data.
Associate/Former Members
Dr Ritesh Vyas
Dr Akanimo Odon
