Hany Farid, a pioneer in digital forensics research, received the 2025 McGuire Family Prize for Societal Impact on Feb. 27, earning $100,000 for his groundbreaking work in detecting manipulated digital media.
The prize, established through a gift from Terry McGuire, Thayer ‘82, and Carolyn Carr McGuire, Tuck ‘83, recognizes Dartmouth community members making significant positive impacts on humanity, society, or the environment, according to the college.
Farid’s research uses computational and mathematical techniques to identify whether images, audio, or video have been altered, providing essential tools to distinguish truth from machine-made fiction in an era of easily manipulated digital content, according to Dartmouth.
“As an academic, you hope that you’ll have an impact—trying to affect society and bring about global change, and asking, what can we do to help? I was always motivated by that. So, receiving an award for societal impact is truly rewarding,” Farid said.
President Sian Leah Beilock announced a surprise during the award ceremony at the Hanover Inn: Farid will return to Dartmouth’s faculty in July after serving at University of California Berkeley since 2019.
“He’s going to be instrumental in pushing us forward—both on the research front and in helping us develop great humans who can lead in an AI-centered world,” Beilock said, according to the college.
Farid served on Dartmouth’s faculty for 20 years before moving to Berkeley in 2019, according to the announcement.
Barton McGuire ‘08 highlighted the crucial impact of Farid’s work during the ceremony, emphasizing its importance in an era of widespread misinformation.
“In a world that is increasingly flooded by deepfake photos and videos, a world that is swimming in false or unverifiable information, we risk losing our most basic commonality: a shared perception of reality,” McGuire said.
McGuire noted his personal stake in Farid’s research, saying he wants to help teach his two young sons to recognize “what is real and what is fake” and “to help them know who and what to trust.”
“For my part, I feel better for my sons, and for all of us, and all of our communities, knowing that the work Dr. Farid is doing and the field he is forging is making sure that we can still have trustworthy information and with it a common understanding,” McGuire said.
Farid’s career at Dartmouth began in 1999 as an assistant professor of computer science when the internet was still young and image tampering relied on manual tools like Photoshop, according to the college. He developed methods to decode digital fingerprints inherent in every image, creating tools that identify computational “tells” when images are altered.
His research quickly transitioned from laboratory work to real-world applications, redefining evidence standards in the digital age and providing federal law enforcement and the judicial system with means to authenticate digital media for court use, according to Dartmouth.
The tools Farid built during his Dartmouth tenure, most notably PhotoDNA, now serve as the global standard for civil authorities, media outlets, and technology companies, according to the college.
Earlier on the day of the award ceremony, Farid delivered a lecture charting his professional trajectory from early digital manipulation detection to the current escalating arms race against deepfakes, according to Dartmouth.
President Beilock said Farid’s work serves as a modern blueprint for foundational leadership that created artificial intelligence 70 years ago at Dartmouth. She noted that by pairing scientific rigor with commitment to public good, Farid embodies the values the McGuire Prize was designed to honor.
“The McGuire Prize celebrates those who aren’t content to lead from an ivory tower but feel an obsessive need to make society better,” Beilock said during her remarks at the ceremony.
