Pattie Maes of MIT Media Lab Honored with ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award
Pattie Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and head of the Fluid Interfaces research group within the MIT Media Lab, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award. She is set to receive the award at the CHI 2025 conference in Yokohama, Japan, this April.
The ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award is bestowed upon individuals whose work in human-computer interaction (HCI) has been both foundational and profoundly influential. Recipients are chosen based on their extensive contributions, their impact on the work of others, their role in fostering new research directions, and their active engagement within the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) community.
Maes’s nomination highlights her dedication to placing human agency at the forefront of HCI and artificial intelligence research. Her advocacy emphasizes the augmentation of human capabilities through AI, rather than replacement.
As a pioneer of software agents in the 1990s, Maes’s work bridges the gap between human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence, significantly contributing to the foundations of today’s online experiences. Her influential article “Social information filtering: algorithms for automating ‘word of mouth’,” co-authored with Upendra Shardanand and presented at CHI 95, remains the second-most-cited paper from ACM SIGCHI.
Beyond desktop-based interaction, Maes has also developed wearable devices designed to enhance human experiences by aiding memory, learning, decision-making, and health. Through an interdisciplinary approach, she has consistently championed accessible and ethical designs, emphasizing a human-centered perspective.
“As a senior faculty member, Pattie is an integral member of the Media Lab, MIT, and larger HCI communities,” said Media Lab Director Dava Newman. “Her contributions to several different fields, alongside her unwavering commitment to enhancing the human experience in her work, is exemplary of not only the Media Lab’s interdisciplinary spirit, but also our core mission: to create transformative technologies and systems that enable people to reimagine and redesign their lives. We all celebrate this well-deserved recognition for Pattie!”
Maes joins her Media Lab colleague Hiroshi Ishii, the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, as the second MIT professor to receive this honor.
“I am honored to be recognized by the ACM community, especially given that it can be difficult sometimes for researchers doing highly interdisciplinary research to be appreciated, even though some of the most impactful innovations often emerge from that style of research,” Maes commented.
