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Barry Brown
barry@dsv.su.se / barry@di.ku.dk / barry.brown@me.com
Professor, Head of HCC section, University of Copenhagen
Professor of Human Computer Interaction at Stockholm University
Visiting Professor, KTH
Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham
CV
Professor Barry Brown is the head of the HCC section at the University of Copenhagen, ranked 1st in European HCI groups by CSRankings.org, and is also a Professor at Stockholm University. At Stockholm he helps to run the STIR group – Stockholm technology and interaction research group. His work has received funding from Vinnova, SSF, VR, Wallenburg, Microsoft, Nissan, Mozilla and the EU. His two most recent books have been published by Sage and MIT Press, focusing on how to research the use of digital technology, and the study and design of leisure technologies. Professor Brown previously worked as the research director of the Mobile Life research centre (2011-2017), and as an associate professor in the Department of Communication at UCSD (2007-2011).
He has received two best paper awards from CHI, alongside five ACM honourable mentions, along with the UBICOMP 10 year impact award. He has an h-index of 60, and has gathered over 13,000 citations to his work. Notably, his most cited paper (on mobile work and place, published in TOCHI) has received 800 citations. Google Scholar lists him as number 19 of CSCW scholars worldwide, and number 7th of ethnomethodologists worldwide. In terms of research funding he has received over $10 million in research funding from the UK research councils, NSF, and European, Swedish and Danish funding agencies. His research has also been covered in the international press including the Guardian, Time, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Voice of America and Fortune Magazine.
Barry’s work focuses on foreseeing how new technologies will actually come to be used and the problems they may create. He has documented many of the early opportunities – and problems – around different technologies: such as music sharing, digital tourism, mobile phone use, smartwatches, digital maps, video streaming, wikis, smart speakers, IoT hacking, ride sharing, e-scooters and self-driving cars (CHI23). One of his earliest publications (a technical report from 2001) coined the term ‘privacy paradox’. Since then, he has been a key author in so called ‘third wave’ HCI, exploring the social and technical practices involved in leisure and enjoyment. These contributions have been foundational in moving HCI from solely focusing on efficiency and work, to legitimising the study of culture, play, and experience (summarised in his 2015 MIT press book “Enjoying Machines”). His work has also been important in developing video analysis as a method in HCI. He developed the ‘in vivo’ method, which explored how screen recording can be combined with wearable and mobile camera setups to capture technology practice. This was crucial for how in-the-wild methods have developed, providing the template for how to study mobile interactions rigorously.
Brown has consistently pivoted his research focus to areas where HCI faces its newest and most complex challenges. One branch of his recent work has explored how HCI can engage transport in different ways, such as ridesharing, e-scooters or self-driving cars. Recently he has turned these findings to understanding the role of HCI in designing robots. This investigates the social mechanics of how robots navigate human crowds—how they signal intent, manage right-of-way, and fit into the social fabric of the city. This research is setting the agenda for the emerging field of human-robot interaction in public, moving beyond lab studies to the messy reality of urban life. Brown’s work also shows a willingness to tackle difficult and pressing subjects, his 2025 publication addresses the role of robots and drones in armed conflict–specifically the Ukrainian war. By turning the analytical lens of HCI toward warfare, he challenges the community to engage with the profound ethical issues presented by lethal autonomous systems.