Michael L. Best is an American computer scientist and international development specialist. He is professor at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

where he holds a joint appointment with the

Sam Nunn School of International Affairs The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, at the Georgia Institute of Technology located in Atlanta, Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the south ...

and the School of Interactive Computing. He is Executive Director of th
Institute for People and Technology(IPaT)
ref> and Director of th
Technologies and International Development Lab
Best served as founding director of the

United Nations University The is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve list of global issues, global issues related to Human development ...

Institute on Computing and Society established in 2015. Working in the areas of ICT4D, he is co-founder and editor-in-chief emeritus of journal ''

Information Technologies and International Development ''Information Technologies & International Development'' (''ITID'') is an open access print and online peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal covering studies on communication and international development, published quarterly by the USC Annen ...

'' and leads the "Global Computing" column for ''

Communications of the ACM ''Communications of the ACM'' (''CACM'') is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). History It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are i ...

''. He has published on various topics such as formative work in ICT sustainability, rural access, and ICTs for peacebuilding in conflict stressed environments. His work has done much to promote ICT4D as an academic discipline having founded the area's most significant journal ( ITID) and helped to lead its largest conference (ICTD).

Early life and education

Best was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

for undergraduate studies in

computer science and engineering Computer science and engineering (CSE) is an academic subject comprising approaches of computer science and computer engineering. There is no clear division in computing between science and engineering, just like in the field of materials science ...

, where for his senior thesis he developed, on a

Connection Machine The Connection Machine (CM) is a member of a series of massively parallel supercomputers sold by Thinking Machines Corporation. The idea for the Connection Machine grew out of doctoral research on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann arch ...

, a massively parallel algorithm for the

graph coloring problem In graph theory, graph coloring is a methodic assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph. The assignment is subject to certain constraints, such as that no two adjacent elements have the same color. Graph coloring i ...

. After graduating with a BS in 1989 he joined Thinking Machines Corp in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he worked on various projects, including parallel programming languages, message passing I/O, and network simulation for the CM 5 supercomputer. Best attended graduate school at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

, receiving an MS under the supervision of Ken Haase. His PhD work, supervised by

Pattie Maes Pattie Maes (born 1961) is a Belgian scientist. She is a professor in MIT's program in Media Arts and Sciences. She founded and directed the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group. Previously, she founded and ran the Software Agents group. She ...

, applied evolutionary theory to problems in text analysis and retrieval.

ICT4D and Georgia Tech

Upon graduating with his PhD in 2000, Best joined the Media Lab as a research scientist and the

Center for International Development The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

as a research fellow. He went on to direct the eDevelopment Group at the MIT Media Lab as well as Media Lab Asia, at the time an MIT Media Lab collaborative research initiative in India. He has served as fellow or faculty associate of the

Berkman Center for Internet and Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

at Harvard University since 2003. In 2008, Best joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. In 2011 he received tenure and was promoted to associate professor and then to full professor. He directs th
Technologies and International Development Lab (TID Lab)
where he has supervised many global projects, in particular in Africa and South Asia. The TID Lab is a multi-disciplinary research collaborative combining social and computer sciences with policy and design. At Georgia Tech he has received substantial recognition for his work including the Ivan Allen Faculty Legacy Award (2009), People & Technology Award (2011), and Stephen A. Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement (2014). His work has been supported by a variety of sponsors including The MacArthur Foundation,

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

, and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. He has published 100 papers in journals, conferences, or books. Best has made numerous contributions towards establishing ICT4D as an academic discipline. He is the founding editor-in-chief, with Ernest J. Wilson III, of the field's highest-rated journal, ''

'' (ITID). In addition he is one of the early organizers of the area's major conference, the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, having served as its general chair in 2012. He is founder and lead of the Global Computing column for

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Michael UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni