Ronald Baecker (born October 7, 1942) is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science and Bell Chair in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Toronto (UofT), and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He was the co-founder of the Dynamic Graphics Project (DGP), and the founder of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab (TAGlab) at UofT. He was the founder of Canada's research network on collaboration technologies (NECTAR), a founding researcher of AGE-WELL, Canada's Technology and Agine research network, the founder of Springer Nature's Synthesis Lectures on Technology and Health, and the founder of computers-society.org. He also started five software companies between 1976 and 2015. He is currently an ACM Distinguished Speaker. He is the author of Digital Dreams Have Become Nightmares: What We Must Do (ACM, 2024), author of Ethical Tech Startup Guide (Springer Nature, 2023), co-author of The COVID-19 Solutions Guide (2020), and author of Computers and Society: Modern Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2019). His other books are Readings in Human Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000 (Morgan Kaufmann, 1995), Readings in Groupware and Computer Supported Cooperative Work: Software to Facilitate Human-Human Collaboration (Elsevier, 1993), Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs (Addison-Wesley, 1990) and Readings in Human Computer Interaction: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Elsevier, 1987).

Education

Baecker received a B.Sc. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1963, an M.Sc. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1964, and a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT in 1969.

Summary of research interests

Baecker is an expert in human-computer interaction (HCI), user interface (UI) design, software visualization, multimedia, computer-supported cooperative work and learning, entrepreneurship in the software industry, and the design of technologies for aging gracefully.

Honors and awards