Christoph Becker

Christoph Becker
Born
Austria
EducationVienna University of Technology (BSc computer science, MSc computer science, MSc economics, doctorate computer science)
EmployerUniversity of Toronto
Known forSustainability in System Design Digital Curation Digital Preservation Planning
Notable workKarlskrona Manifesto (2015)
Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability (2023)
Websitechristoph-becker.info

Christoph Becker is an Austrian computer scientist, Full Professor at the Faculty of Information and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. He leads the Just Sustainability Design Lab, where his research focuses on sustainability and social justice in computing and technology design.

Becker is one of the co-founders of the Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design and is the author of the book Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability, published by MIT Press in 2023.

Career

Becker received his BSc in computer science, MSc in software engineering, MSc in economics and computer science, and doctorate in computer science at the Vienna University of Technology. After completing his PhD in 2010 with a thesis on decision-making in digital preservation, he spent a winter in Lisbon as a visiting post-doctoral researcher with the Information Systems research group at IST Lisbon. He returned to Vienna to lead a research program on scalable decision support for digital preservation as part of the large-scale EC-funded project SCAPE: Scalable Preservation Environments, which he co-developed with an international consortium of universities, memory organizations, industrial research and commercial partners.

In 2013, Becker moved to Toronto, Canada, to join the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor in 2018 and a full professor in 2023. He also holds an appointment in the University of Toronto's School of the Environment.

Becker leads the Just Sustainability Design Lab, an interdisciplinary research group exploring how technology can serve social justice, environmental sustainability, and community well-being. He also is one of the Fellows of the University of Toronto's Sustainable Development Goals Academy.

His book Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainability appeared at MIT Press from June 2023. The book was named a finalist for the 2024 Association of American Publishers PROSE Award in the Engineering and Technology category, and was also selected as 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Research

Becker's research focuses on just sustainability design, a framework for systems design practice, research, and pedagogy that gives priority to environmental sustainability and social justice. The framework examines how the effects of systems design choices may be distributed unevenly across people, communities, places, and time. It seeks not only to prevent or reduce harm, but also to use systems design to bring about socially just and ecologically sustainable change.

Becker directed the Digital Curation Institute at the University of Toronto from 2014 to 2024. His earlier research focused on digital preservation, digital curation, archiving, and digital libraries. This work included the development of methods and decision-support systems for the long-term preservation of digital information.

He has received funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Research Fund, Canada Foundation for Innovation, the European Commission's Framework Program, the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the University of Toronto's Connaught Fund, and School of Cities Urban Challenge Grants.

Becker is an associate editor of the recently launched ACM Journal of Responsible Computing, a member of the program committees of ICSE, CHASE, ICT4S, Computing within Limits, and EASE, and a co-founder of TechOtherwise.

Works

Public Writing

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Sustainable Development Goals: Fellows". University of Toronto. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Association of American Publishers Announces Finalists and Category Winners for 2024 PROSE Awards - AAP". March 5, 2024. Retrieved August 11, 2026.
  3. ↑ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Christoph Becker". discover.research.utoronto.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Opinion | It's time to defund Big Tech and empower communities". thestar.com. February 24, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Ein neuer Kompass für die digitale Zukunft". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  7. ↑ "W. Kaye Lamb Prize Winners | Archivaria". archivaria.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  8. ↑ Becker, Christoph (2011). Trustworthy Preservation Planning (in German). Gesellschaft für Informatik. ISBN 978-3-88579-415-8.
  9. ↑ JP (January 26, 2011). "Vergabe des VFI-Förderungspreises 2010". Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (in German). Retrieved April 20, 2023.