Pattie Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and head of the Fluid Interfaces research group inside the MIT Media Lab, has been awarded the 2025 ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award. She is going to accept the award at CHI 2025 in Yokohama, Japan this April.
The Lifetime Research Award is given to individuals whose research in human-computer interaction (HCI) is taken into account each fundamental and influential to the sphere. Recipients are chosen based on their cumulative contributions, influence on the work of others, recent research developments, and being an lively participant within the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) community.
Her nomination recognizes her advocacy to put human agency at the middle of HCI and artificial intelligence research. Moderately than AI replacing human capabilities, Maes has advocated for tactics wherein human capabilities could be supported or enhanced by the combination of AI.
Pioneering the concept of software agents within the Nineties, Maes’ work has at all times been situated on the intersection of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence and has helped lay the foundations for today’s online experience. Her article “Social information filtering: algorithms for automating ‘word of mouth’” from CHI 95, co-authored with graduate student Upendra Shardanand, is the second-most-cited paper from ACM SIGCHI.
Beyond her contributions in desktop-based interaction, she has an intensive body of labor in the world of novel wearable devices that enhance the human experience, for instance by supporting memory, learning, decision-making, or health. Through an interdisciplinary approach, Maes has explored accessible and ethical designs while stressing the necessity for a human-centered approach.
“As a senior faculty member, Pattie is an integral member of the Media Lab, MIT, and bigger HCI communities,” says 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 in addition our core mission: to create transformative technologies and systems that enable people to reimagine and redesign their lives. We all have a good time this well-deserved recognition for Pattie!”
Maes is the second MIT professor to receive this honor, joining her Media Lab colleague Hiroshi Ishii, the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and head of the Tangible Media research group.
“I’m honored to be recognized by the ACM community, especially on condition that it may possibly be difficult sometimes for researchers doing highly interdisciplinary research to be appreciated, regardless that a number of the most impactful innovations often emerge from that sort of research,” Maes comments.
