Steve Whittaker
Encyclopedia
Steve Whittaker is a professor
in Human-Computer Interaction. He currently works at University of California at Santa Cruz. He was previously a Professor in information retrieval
at the Information Studies
department at the University of Sheffield
. He earned an MA at the University of Cambridge
and a Ph.D. at the University of St Andrews
. He has also been a Research Scientist at HP Labs, Lotus, AT&T Labs and IBM.
Whittaker has authored or co-authored more than 100 technical papers a number of which have won best paper prizes and awards. His work focuses on design and implementation of systems to support computer supported cooperative work
(CSCW), computer mediated communication (CMC), personal information management
(PIM) and interfaces for information retrieval
, in particular for speech data. He also has 11 patents. He has an h-index
of over 40 and is presently the 69th most prolific author in the field. He was elected to the prestigious CHI Academy
in 2008 for his "extensive contributions to the study of HCI" and for his leading role in "the shaping of the field". He is probably best known for his papers on email, instant messaging and lifelogging.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in Human-Computer Interaction. He currently works at University of California at Santa Cruz. He was previously a Professor in information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
at the Information Studies
Sheffield Information Studies
The Information School or iSchool of the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, was founded in 1963 as the University's Postgraduate School of Librarianship and became in 2010 the first UK iSchool...
department at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
. He earned an MA at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and a Ph.D. at the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
. He has also been a Research Scientist at HP Labs, Lotus, AT&T Labs and IBM.
Whittaker has authored or co-authored more than 100 technical papers a number of which have won best paper prizes and awards. His work focuses on design and implementation of systems to support computer supported cooperative work
Computer supported cooperative work
The term computer-supported cooperative work was first coined by Irene Greif and Paul M. Cashman in 1984, at a workshop attended by individuals interested in using technology to support people in their work. At about this same time, in 1987 Dr...
(CSCW), computer mediated communication (CMC), personal information management
Personal information management
Personal information management refers to the practice and the study of the activities people perform in order to acquire, organize, maintain, retrieve and use information items such as documents , web pages and email messages for everyday use to complete tasks and fulfill a person’s various...
(PIM) and interfaces for information retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
, in particular for speech data. He also has 11 patents. He has an h-index
H-index
The h-index is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications...
of over 40 and is presently the 69th most prolific author in the field. He was elected to the prestigious CHI Academy
CHI Academy
The CHI Academy is a group of researchers honored by SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group in Computer–Human Interaction of the Association for Computing Machinery. Each year, 5–7 new members are elected for having made a significant, cumulative contributions to the development of thefield of...
in 2008 for his "extensive contributions to the study of HCI" and for his leading role in "the shaping of the field". He is probably best known for his papers on email, instant messaging and lifelogging.