Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz Honored With the 2026 HHRRC Clyde Snow Award

The Forensic Sciences Foundation Humanitarian and Human Rights Resource Center (FSF HHRRC) offers the Clyde Snow Award to a forensic scientist or organization that has made outstanding contributions to humanitarian action and the global advancement of human rights through the use of forensic science. The award recognizes the pioneering contributions of forensic anthropologist Clyde Collins Snow (1928-2014) in the application of forensic science to human rights. Dr. Snow helped catalyze the development of forensic science to support human rights throughout Latin America and around the world. His career accomplishments present an extraordinary model for forensic scientists to reflect upon.

Many accomplished individuals and organizations were nominated this year for the Clyde Snow Award. All candidates were reviewed and ranked by the HHRRC International Advisory Council and Subcommittee Chairs. The HHRRC is pleased to announce that Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz has been selected for the Clyde Snow ward.

A trained physician, Dr. Tidball-Binz has been conducting forensic investigations into human rights violations as well as human rights and humanitarian forensic fact-finding, technical assessment, and capacity-building missions to over 90 counties in all regions for over 40 years.

Dr. Tidball-Binz originally began human rights work in Argentina while a medical student in Argentina and trained there in forensic anthropology under the tutelage of Dr. Clyde Snow. He is a founding member and first director of the Equipo Argentino Anthropología Forense (EAAF, Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team) in the 1980s, while also assisting the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo with the pioneering use of forensic genetics to identify their missing grandchildren. Since then, Dr. Tidball-Binz served as researcher and then head of the Americas Department of Amnesty International in the United Kingdom, as Americas regional director of Penal Reform International in Costa Rica, and then director of the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Tidball-Binz pioneered the development of humanitarian forensics at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) between 2004 and 2016 when he was appointed as the first head of the ICRC Forensic Services Unit, bringing to the unit a team of 50+ experts. In 2017, he led the complex forensic operation to identify scores of Argentine soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). From 2018 until his retirement in 2020, he was Forensic Manager for the ICRC's Missing Persons Project and also participated in the ICRC's forensic task force on the COVID-19 pandemic to guide the management of COVID-19 fatalities worldwide. In 2021, he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as the current U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, the first-ever mandate holder with a forensic background, in which capacity he actively promotes international standards of forensic best practice, including the U.N. Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation into Potentially Unlawful Death.

Recipients of the Clyde Snow Award embody the spirit and far-reaching contributions made by Dr. Snow. The Award is also intended to stimulate the career development and minds of young forensic scientists. In addition, the Clyde Snow Award exemplifies the commitment of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to the application of forensic science to help resolve important issues in the international and global domain.

Candidates for this award (individuals or organizations) are nominated by a member of the international forensic science community. Selection criteria focus on the sustained body of work in humanitarian forensic science. The Clyde Snow Award is not for any specific contribution in the forensic sciences but is intended to recognize a sustained effort in the global application of forensic science to human rights investigations and/or humanitarian action.

The Clyde Snow Award will be presented to Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz during the 2026 AAFS Annual Business Meeting on February 11, 2026.