James Herbsleb

James Herbsleb is a Professor in the Software and Societal Systems Department at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, where he also serves as Director of the PhD program in Societal Computing. He holds a PhD in psychology and an MS in computer science.

His research explores the intersection of software engineering, computer-supported cooperative work, and socio-technical systems. Primary focus areas include:

• Architecting socio-technical ecosystems (e.g., open source platforms like Eclipse and Mozilla)
• Coordination challenges in modular software development
• Scientific software sharing and co-creation
• Hackathons and community code engagements

His recent publications (2011-2014) demonstrate strong emphasis on collaborative development platforms like GitHub and Wikipedia, examining social dynamics, contribution evaluation, and governance in distributed teams. Research consistently bridges technical systems and human collaboration patterns.

Scientific Awards:

• ACM Outstanding Research Award (2016)
• Alan Newell Award for Research Excellence (2014)
• Best Paper Awards at ICSE, CSCW, and Academy of Management conferences

His research is funded by NSF, Sloan Foundation, Google, IBM, Siemens, and Bosch. He leads projects on coordination systems and online deliberation, and has supervised research on open source ecosystems through the Breaking APIs project.