Mary Beth Rosson is a Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. She was among the earliest researchers to study the psychological issues associated with the object-oriented paradigm, and she spent many years developing and evaluating object-oriented tools for professional programmers. She studies the interplay between the concerns of human-computer interaction and software engineering in addition to the tools and practices of end-user developers in educational and general business contexts.
Prior to joining the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State in 2003, Rosson was a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech for 10 years and a research staff member and manager at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center for 11 years.
She actively participates in the ACM SIGCHI community, including serving as the General Chair for the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in 2007. She authored “Usability Engineering: Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction” as well as many other articles, book chapters, and tutorials.
Rosson was awarded the SIGCHI award for service as CHI 1997 Technical Program Co-Chair International and the ACM Recognition of Service award in 2001. In 2007, she was recognized as a Distinguished Scientist by the ACM.
“Mary Beth Rosson has a long research history that includes object-oriented software engineering, collaborative learning, online communities, scenario-based design, and HCI theory development. Her software engineering side is strong on user evaluation, such as her work in the End Users to Shape Effective Software (EUSES) Consortium. She’s been a devoted contributor to the SIGCHI community, including chairing the SIGCHI 2007 Conference.” – Ben Shneiderman
Education:
- Ph.D. in Human Experimental Psychology, University of Texas, Austin (1982)
- B.A. in Psychology, Trinity University, San Antonio (1977)
Affiliations:
- Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, (2015 – Present)
- Interim Dean, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, (2014 – 2015)
- Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, (2012 – 2014)
- Professor, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, (2003 – Present)
- Visiting Professor, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2010)
- Affiliate Professor of Instructional Systems, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University (2004 – Present)
- Professor, Computer Science Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2002 – 2003)
- Visiting Scientist, Xerox Research Centre Europe, Cambridge, England (2000)
- Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University (1994 – 2002) - Manager (1986 – 1988), Research Staff Member (1982 – 1993), Computer Science Department, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
- Human Factors Psychologist, IBM Austin (1981)
- Statistician, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas (1977)
Links:
Encounters with HCI Pioneers - A Personal Photo Journal 