Zhang Wins 2026 ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award

Ben Z. Zhang, an assistant professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, recently won the 2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI).

This award recognizes outstanding research contributions from emerging scholars in human-computer interaction (HCI). His dissertation is entitled, "Infrastructuring Data Value: An Ethnography of AI Production and Data Marketplaces in the Chinese Datafied State."

Zhang, who holds a PhD in information with a graduate certificate in science and technology studies from the University of Michigan, conducts human-computer interaction and social computing research on the production and sociotechnical impacts of AI-enabled systems across critical contexts such as work, health and sustainability. Drawing on training in HCI, science and technology studies and data science, Zhang takes a life-cycle-centered approach to examine the promises, inequalities and often-invisible labor embedded in AI infrastructures from development and deployment to governance. His work contributed to theory and informs more equitable, human-centered design and policy interventions.

He earned a Master of Science in applied data science from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Indianapolis. His research has been supported by awards and fellowships from the International Institute, the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan and the Weizenbaum Institute in Germany.

The award selection, administered by the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee, is based upon a rigorous process beginning with nominations submitted primarily by SIGCHI members. This year, the committee received 107 nominations in the categories of Lifetime Research, Lifetime Service, Academy, Societal Impact, Outstanding Dissertation and Special Recognition. Of those, 29 nominees were selected for recognition. The distinctions highlight remarkable achievements in scholarship, service, mentorship and impact.

"I'm deeply honored and feel fortunate to be a part of the vibrant global HCI community. This recognition affirms the value of a growing body of research that examines promise, harm and precarity in AI development, while also attending to the professional, labor, institutional and economic dimensions that make AI and data infrastructures possible and consequential," said Zhang, who is also grateful for his PhD advisors, committee members, collaborators, interlocutors, and friends and family.

Zhang's dissertation presents an interdisciplinary, human-centered analysis of values-in-the-making within global AI infrastructures and offers an ethnographic account of how data's value is enacted. It investigates how state-directed efforts to elevate data as a strategic national resource are translated into everyday practices of AI production and the construction of emerging data marketplaces. By tracing valuation across actors, sites, and governance regimes, his dissertation offers scholars, technologists and policymakers an analytical lens to examine how emerging infrastructures shape not only what counts as valuable, but also who gets to participate in value creation - and at what cost.

"We are incredibly proud of Ben," said Klaus Mueller, interim chair in the Department of Technology and Society and professor in the Department of Computer Science. "His work highlights the social and technical dimensions of AI systems- from the data infrastructures that support them to the human labor and governance behind them. Being named one of only a few recipients of the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award is a tremendous honor and reflects both the originality of his research and its importance for the future of responsible AI," Mueller said.

About the ACM SIGCHI

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) is the leading international community of students and professionals interested in research, education, and practical applications of human-computer interaction (HCI). They are an interdisciplinary group of computer scientists, software engineers, psychologists, interaction designers, graphic designers, sociologists, multi-media designers, information scientists, and anthropologists, to name some of the domains whose special expertise come to bear in this area. What brings them together is a shared understanding that designing useful and usable technology is an interdisciplinary process, and when done properly it has the power to transform lives.

- Debra Scala Giokas