On May 26, 2015, our very own Dr. Mark Chignell was the recipient of a Long Service Award for 25 years of continuous service at the University of Toronto.
In addition to being a Faculty Member in the Departments of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Faculty of Information, he is also Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI), and he is the BUL (Bell University Labs) Chair in Human-Computer Interaction. With a Ph. D in Psychology (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1981) and an M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Ohio State, 1984), he was an Assistant Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California from 1984 to 1990.
Dr. Chignell was a visiting scientist at Keio University from 2005 to 2010, and since 2002 he has been a visiting scientist at the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies in Toronto. Amongst his many accomplishments he has co-authored books on expert systems and intelligent databases and has recently co-edited books on “The Smart Internet” (Springer, 2010) and “The Personal Web” (Springer, 2013).
In his 25 years of continuous service, Dr. Chignell has also graduated over 25 Ph. Ds, including Mica Endsley, who is now the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force.
Dr. Chignell founded two start-up companies that received investment funding and he continues to be involved in the practical application of research results through Vocalage Inc., a company that he founded in 2003. Vocalage is a high tech consulting and outsourced research firm that works on collaborative research projects with companies in various industries. Like KMDI, Vocalage is concerned with innovative design. Dr. Chignell’s work at Volcalage focuses on various forms of communication and information technology, with applications including automotive and healthcare user interfaces.
Of receiving the award, Dr. Mark Chignell said:
It has truly been a joy working at the University of Toronto over the last 25 years. The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering has been wonderfully supportive and I’m surrounded by gifted and hardworking colleagues who are at the forefront of their respective fields. I’m also privileged to be the Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute and to have a one third appointment in the Faculty of Information. I hope that I’ll be able to make a useful contribution to University for a few more years since I couldn’t imagine a better place to work.
Congratulations Dr. Chignell! The Knowledge Media Design Institute is honoured to operate under your direction and looks forward to continuing KMDI’s goal of supporting and enhancing the well-being of humans in a world of increasingly ubiquitous augmenting technologies.
You can join us in congratulating Dr. Chignell by tweeting us at @kmdi or sending him a message through our Facebook page at KMDI Toronto.
-written by Raquel Russell