We are no longer accepting applications for the 2025-26 academic year.
Please check back during the Fall of 2025 to apply for 2026-27.
The way people and computers work together has been the subject of intense study since the beginnings of the computer age in the early 1950s. A discipline, known as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), eventually emerged to formalize this research, composed of computer scientists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, artists, and many others. Since these early days of focus on the user experience, Human-Computer Interaction has helped create and shape our always evolving digital world—from early graphics, networking, and graphical user interfaces to the Web, mobile, the Internet of Things, AI, and the Cloud.
The Annual CBI Ben Shneiderman Award in Human-Computer Interaction History recognizes excellence in advancing the history/social study (focus must be change over time) of HCI. The award is for a published book, article, documentary, podcast, website, or other media on HCI’s past.
To apply or nominate the work of a colleague, please submit via Google form.
Jeffrey R. Yost (Chair), Charles Babbage Institute Director and Research Prof., University of Minnesota
Gerardo Con Diaz, Assoc. Prof. of STS, University of California, Davis
Teasel Muir-Harmony, Curator of Apollo Spacecraft Collections, National Air and Space, Smithsonian Institution
Fabio Paternò. Research Director of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)
Elizabeth Petrick, Assoc. Prof. of History, Rice University
Dag Spicer, Senior Curator, Computer History Museum
The CBI’s and Committee’s decision about what is eligible and who is to receive the award is final.
The Charles Babbage Institute for Computing (CBI), Information, and Culture, University of Minnesota administrates these awards in conjunction and partnership with colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution, Computer History Museum, SIGCHI, and several other universities. Ben Shneiderman has provided funding for the first three years of this award with supporting funds from Catherine Plaisant.
The CBI for Computing, Information, and Culture is an interdisciplinary research institute and top archives on computing and the digital world. CBI’s research, archives, fellows/grants, oral history, major symposia, partnerships, and editorial leadership strongly and synergistically advance the infrastructure and understanding of computers and society.
Ben Shneiderman, Prof. of Computer Science, University of Maryland, was founding Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. A prolific scientist and author, Prof. Shneiderman is a recipient of The ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award, is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ACM, and IEEE.