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Sara Kiesler Awarded ACM SIGCHI’s Lifetime Achievement Award

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This year the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Sara Kiesler. The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious award SIGCHI gives. The criteria for achievement are the same as for the CHI Academy — individuals who have made extensive contributions to the study of HCI and who have led the shaping of the field — only more so.

Sara is Hillman Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction at the Carnegie Mellon HCI Institute. She is a well-known social psychologist who has worked on group dynamics, decision-making, and communication. Sara’s research in HCI has illuminated many of the most significant social impacts of computing, such as: “flaming,” social equalization, open communication, electronic groups, information sharing, and distributed collaboration. She brought concepts from social psychology and HCI to robotics, helping to create the new interdisciplinary field of human-robot interaction.

Her books Connections (with Lee Sproull), Culture of the Internet, and Distributed Work (with Pam Hinds) have had a wide influence on both researchers and practitioners. Sara’s study, with Bob Kraut, of the impact of the Internet on the sociability of the home environment has received national attention. Recently, with Jonathan Cummings she has studied two multidisciplinary research programs at the National Science Foundation, articulating factors that lead to success. Her own work is a model of collaboration, as she has worked with numerous colleagues and students.

Web Link(s)

SIGCHI website