Gerhard Fischer

Gerhard Fischer (born 1945) is a German-born computer scientist, Professor of Computer Science, a Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science, and the founder and director of the Center for LifeLong Learning & Design (L3D) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

In 1971 he graduated with a Masters (Mathematics and Physical Education) from the University of Heidelberg. With a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), he spent the following two years at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and the University of California, Irvine. He obtained a PhD from the University of Hamburg in Computer Science (1977), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, Cambridge, (working with Seymour Papert and the LOGO community) and Xerox Parc (working with Alan Kay and the Smalltalk community).

From 1974 to 1977 he was Research associate at the Center for Educational Technology at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany. From 1977 to 1978 he was Research Associate at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1978 to 1984 he served as an Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of Stuttgart. During these six years, he spent several extended visits at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh to study with Herbert A. Simon who served as the primary advisor for his "Habilitation" degree that he obtained in 1983 from the University of Stuttgart. In 1984 he accepted a position in the Computer Science Department of the University of Colorado, Boulder combined with being a Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science. During the years at CU Boulder, he was Stiftungsprofessor at the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany (1994-1995) and Erskine fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (2002-2003).

He was awarded a "Chair of Excellence" at the Charles III University of Madrid (UC3M), Spain and he spent 6 months in 2012 and 2013 as a visiting professor at UC3M. He obtained a fellowship from the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) an Advanced Study Institute in Delmenhorst, Germany and he spent 6 months in 2014 and 2015 at the HWK as a fellow. He was invited as a Visiting Professor to the Technical University, Vienna, Austria (October 2018) and the University of Hiroshima, Japan (April 2019).

Early Work (1978-1984). In his early work at the University of Stuttgart, he explored theoretical frameworks and system developments for Human-Computer Interaction and co-founded conferences in Germany on "Mensch-Maschine Kommunikation" (1980) and "Software Ergonomics" (1983).

Work at CU Boulder (1984 – 2012). His early work at CU Boulder was centered on domain-oriented design environments, critiquing systems, and the exploration of high-functionality environments.

In 1994, the Center for LifeLong Learning & Design was founded and in the following years, he (in close collaboration with numerous colleagues, including specifically Ernesto Arias, Hal Eden, Michael Eisenberg, and Walter Kintsch and a large number of PhD students) explored themes in meta-design, social creativity, cultures of participation, computer-supported collaborative learning,support environments for people with cognitive disabilities, and collaborative problem solving and decision making with table-top computing environments.He participated in the characterization of numerous NSF research programs (including: Lifelong Learning, Science of Design, Creativity and IT). He served as the principal advisor of 20 PhD students

Recent Work (2013 – 2020).His research activities are centered around

• supporting collaborative problem solving and decision making with table-top computing environments.
• identifying design trade-offs associated with wicked problems and exploring quality of life as a fundamental objective of human-centered design
• rethinking and reinventing learning, education, and collaboration in the digital age
• serving on numerous advisory and editorial boards
• continuing to be involved in combining European and American research traditions.

He was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2007 and was elected as a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) in 2009, for contributions to human computer interaction and computer-mediated lifelong learning. In 2012, he received the RIGO award from the ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC). In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Swedenand was featured as one of the Pioneers of HCI