Hany Farid has spent his career answering a question that has become central to life: can we trust what we see and hear? The Egyptian-American computer scientist is internationally recognized as a pioneer of digital forensics, a field that uses computational techniques to determine whether images, videos, and audio recordings are authentic or manipulated. At a time when generative artificial intelligence can manufacture convincing evidence, voices, and identities, his work protects something fundamental—the ability to establish truth.

Born in Germany to Egyptian parents and raised in the United States, Farid built an academic path across computer science, mathematics, and human perception. He earned undergraduate degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of Rochester, followed by a master’s degree at SUNY Albany and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. A postdoctoral fellowship in brain and cognitive sciences at MIT added another dimension to his work: understanding not only how images are constructed, but also how people interpret them....