FACULTY

Ronald Baecker is Professor of Computer Science, Bell Universities Laboratories Chair in Human-Computer Interaction, and founder, founding director, chief scientist, and interim director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto. He is also Affiliate Scientist with the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit of Baycrest (formerly, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care), Adjunct Scientist with Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Principal Investigator of the $5.5M Canada-wide NSERC Network for Effective Collaboration Technologies through Advanced Research (NECTAR). He has been named one of the 60 Pioneers of Computer Graphics by ACM SIGGRAPH, has been elected to the CHI Academy by ACM SIGCHI, and has been given the Canadian Human Computer Communications Society Achievement Award in May 2005. His B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. are from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Baecker is an active researcher, lecturer, and consultant on human-computer interaction and user interface design, user support, software visualization, multimedia, computer-supported cooperative work and learning, the Internet, entrepreneurship and strategic planning in the software industry, and the role of information technology in business. He has published over 125 papers and articles on topics in these areas. He is also the author or co-author of two published videotapes and of four books:

• "Reading in Human-Computer Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach",
• "Human Factors in Typography for More Readable Programs",
• "Readings in Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Facilitating Human-Human Collabortation", and
• "Reading in Human-Computer Interaction: Towards the Year 2000".

He is the co-holder of 2 patents. Professor Baecker was the founder, CEO, and Chairman of HCR Corporation, a Toronto-based UNIX contract R&D and technology development and marketing firm, sold in 1990 to a U.S. competitor.  He was also the founder of Expresto Software Corp, a firm specializing in structured visual communication explaining software and other complex technology. Expresto Software was sold in 2002 to Caseware International.  His most recent entrepreneurial venture was a virtual non-profit foundation within the University of Toronto to distribute and support the open source ePresence Interactive Media system, which has now led to the formation of a start-up delivering ePresence products, services, and solutions.