He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford for research supervisor J. Michael Brady in 1989.

In 2002, he co-authored "Computer Vision: A Modern Approach" with UIUC CS Professor Jean Ponce, a leading publication in the field.

He is a regular member of the program committee of all major international conferences on computer vision.

Forsyth served on the NRC Committee on "Protecting Kids from Pornography and other Inappropriate Material on the Internet", which sat for three years and produced a widely praised study.

Forsyth's research interest also include graphics and machine learning; he served as a committee member of ICML 2008.