Kentaro Toyama earns ACM SIGCHI Societal Impact Award

University of Michigan School of Information professor Kentaro Toyama has earned a 2025 Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction (SIGCHI) Societal Impact Award. 

The award recognizes exceptional achievement across multiple categories, including  research excellence, practical impact and societal contributions. Selection for the award is highly competitive, drawing from a community of over 5,000 SIGCHI members. 

Each awardee must demonstrate remarkable contributions to the field of human computer interaction. 

“Receiving this recognition is a real honor,” Toyama says. “ACM SIGCHI is a terrific community both because it's so richly interdisciplinary and because it serves as the conscience of computing research.” 

Toyama’s research explores how digital technology can and cannot contribute to community development and social change. He is a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, and author of “Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology.” 

At UMSI, Toyama has published numerous articles on  AI's impact on society, digital storytelling to support global maternal health and applications of critical race theory to human-computer interaction. He has been a critical voice in the emergence of AI and a regular writer for The Conversation, commenting on the challenges and opportunities of AI, and the need for regulation. 

PhD students Toyama has advised have gone on to earn prestigious fellowships and awards from the  Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) and Google. He is regularly championed for his mentorship and community engaged research initiatives. 

Toyama was also inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy Class of 2025. He will be celebrated for his ACM SIGCHI Societal Impact Award, as well as his induction at the ACM CHI 2025 conference in Yokohama, Japan.

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Learn more about UMSI W K Kellogg Professor of Community Information and Professor of Information Kentaro Toyama by visiting his UMSI faculty profile and his personal website.