And Ms Baillie, in her late 40s, will celebrate considerable success in this field when she graduates from the University of Otago today with a PhD in anatomy, based on her innovative facial reconstruction research.
''It feels enormously satisfying,'' she said yesterday.
Over the past three years, Ms Baillie has not only been busy undertaking her PhD studies, but has also been raising and caring for her four children, now aged between 11 and 18.
Researchers and forensic specialists have long been trying to find better ways of reconstructing an accurate individual likeness of the face of a dead person, working, in some cases, from only a skull.
Ms Baillie's research has critically analysed some of the limitations of traditional methods, including using inadequate or misleading database information.
And she has used modern technology, including ultrasound and cone beam CT images, to update and develop a more accurate database to determine tissue depth.
Through her work, she wanted to contribute to the ''sense of completion'' that family members felt when they had been effectively reunited, through an accurate facial reconstruction, with a loved one who may have been murdered or have died in a mass disaster, such as a major earthquake.
She is particularly well qualified to undertake facial reconstruction research, given that she is also a visual artist and sculptor who has a diploma of fine arts (honours) qualification from Otago Polytechnic.
But her present research was inspired by studies in anatomy which she undertook in 2010.
She was particularly inspired by a project led by Associate Prof George Dias, of the Otago anatomy department, which involved recreating the face of a 2500-year-old Turkish peasant woman.
Prof Dias said at the time he hoped to refine facial reconstruction to a standard where it could stand scrutiny in court, and ''act like a fingerprint'' for identification.
Prof Dias, who was Ms Baillie's main PhD supervisor, said he was ''astounded'' by her achievement in completing her high-quality thesis in about three years while raising four children.
Her research had taken ''quite a great stride'' towards his dream of making facial reconstruction a more robust approach, with findings accepted by the courts, he said.
