OCME forensic scientist Mark Desire has been identifying 9/11 victims for 25 years. With hundreds of victims still unknown, he’s not stopping.

Mark Desire, the director of forensic biology at the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), has countless stories to tell from working with 9/11 victims’ families.

In one such story from this year, Desire said the mother of a female victim — who was in her 30s and died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center — asked him if he thought he would be able to identify her daughter’s remains before she herself passed on.