Prof Herman Bernitz is a private dental surgeon and Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Maxillo-facial Pathology in the School of Dentistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He completed his B.Ch.D in 1978, his M.Sc. (Odont) cum laude in Oral Pathology in 1996, a Dip. Odont. in Forensic Odontology in 1998 and a PhD in Forensic Dentistry in 2004. He lectured in both Oral Pathology and Forensic Dentistry and was the Manager of Forensic Dental Research for many years. He was the International President of IOFOS for two terms from 2005-2011. He was a member of the scientific committee of the International Academy of Legal Medicine. Since 1998 he has acted as forensic consultant during which time he has been involved in all aspects of Forensic Dentistry. He has acted as expert witness in the Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kimberly and Grahamstown High Courts as well as other circuit courts around South Africa in cases related to bite mark analysis, body identification and age estimation. He has been involved in several mass disasters on the African continent, the most notable being the Kenya air disaster in the Cameroun, Lagos church disaster in Nigeria, the Sundance aircraft disaster in the Congo and the Maputo ammunition explosion in Mozambique. He has lectured extensively on five continents on forensic odontology related subjects. He has 67 scientific publications and has contributed several book chapters, including one on bite mark analysis in the Encyclopaedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine and the chapters on mortuary procedures and bite mark analysis in the newly published IOFOS textbook. He is married to Zephné, a veterinarian in private practice. They have four children and four grandchildren.