Elizabeth Gerber Inducted into ACM SIGCHI Academy

Northwestern Engineering’s Elizabeth Gerber has been elected to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Academy Class of 2025.

ACM SIGCHI is the leading international community of students and professionals interested in research, education, and practical applications of human-computer interaction. The interdisciplinary group includes anthropologists, computer scientists, information scientists, multi-media designers, psychologists, sociologists, and software engineers united in a shared understanding that designing useful and usable technology has the power to transform lives.

The SIGCHI Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of human-computer interaction. Selected annually, academy members are principal leaders in the field, whose efforts have shaped disciplines and advanced innovation in human-computer interaction.

“When I arrived at Northwestern as a junior faculty member pursuing interdisciplinary research, I was advised to strive for excellence in whichever academic community I became part of,” said Gerber, professor of mechanical engineering and (by courtesy) of computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering, and professor of communication studies at Northwestern’s School of Communication. “Any recognition I receive is only possible because of the support, collaboration, and inspiration from my incredible colleagues and collaborators at Northwestern. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work alongside them.”

Gerber was cited by SIGCHI for advancing collective intelligence research, including work on crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, and design methods to encourage equitable participation. Her research helps organizations design and implement new technologies to effectively collaborate. She explores how human-AI systems encourage broader participation in problem solving at a global scale.

Gerber serves as codirector of Northwestern’s Center for Human Computer Interaction + Design (HCI+D), a collaboration between Northwestern Engineering and the School of Communication. HCI+D brings together researchers and practitioners from across the University to study, design, and develop the future of human and computer interaction at home, work, and play. The center draws upon Northwestern’s pioneering leadership in interaction and design research and supports researchers in their pursuit of new interaction paradigms to support a collaborative, sustainable, and equitable society.

She also led the Design Research Cluster, co-sponsored by Northwestern Engineering and The Graduate School. The program has trained more than 60 PhD students in human-centered design methods.

“Since graduating, Design Research Cluster students have built human-centered design practices at universities, industry research labs, and start-ups throughout the globe,” Gerber said.

A faculty member of Northwestern Engineering’s Segal Design Institute, Gerber is a codirector of the Delta Lab interdisciplinary research lab and design studio. She is also the faculty founder of Design for America (DFA), an award-winning network launched at Northwestern in 2009. DFA views systemic challenges as opportunities for creative, community-based problem-solving through business strategy, product design, engineering, UI/UX analysis, and other design services.

Gerber aims to develop a shared future vision across industry, academia, and the social sector as a co-leader of the Design Leadership Initiative. As a founding steering committee member of the Future of Design Education, Gerber collaborated with volunteer working groups to develop a design model emphasizing more sustainable, equitable, and responsible products, systems, organizations, and societies.

Gerber produces Technical Difficulties, a podcast highlighting stories in design leadership, research, storytelling, identity, social impact and ethical innovation, creativity, and curiosity. She served as a founding associate editor of ACM Transactions in Social Computing.

Gerber has received numerous awards for her scholarship and teaching including the ACM SIGCHI Societal Impact Award; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2018 National Design Award; Beckman Trust Award; Impact Design Hub’s 40 under 40; the IEEE’s Teaching Excellence Award; and Northwestern’s Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. Her work has been featured more than 40 times in outlets including NPR, ABC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, and Wired.

Gerber and the nine other members of the SIGCHI Academy Class of 2025 will be recognized at the ACM CHI 2025 conference this spring in Yokohama, Japan.