Pattie Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab where she does research at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence. She is also an affiliated faculty member at MIT’s center for Neuro-Biological Engineering. Maes pioneered the concept of Software Agents in the 90s and remains focused on the question of how computer systems and digital devices might augment people and assist them with issues such as memory, learning, decision making, health and wellbeing. Maes is the editor of four books, has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She is the recipient the “Global Leader for Tomorrow” award from the World Economic Forum and in 2025 she was recognized with the “Lifetime Achievement Award in Human Computer Interaction” by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). She also received honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and Open Universiteit, Netherlands, and has given several TED talks.
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