Christian Sandvig is an Associate Professor in Communication Studies and at the School of Information at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he is a researcher specializing in the development of Internet infrastructure and public policy. Sandvig’s work examines such topics as wireless Internet design and use, expanding broadband access, the difference between rural and urban Internet users, and the role of government in the provision of broadband service.
Before moving to Michigan, Sandvig was an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he founded the Center for People & Infrastructures. He previously served as Markle Foundation Information Policy Fellow at the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University. Sandvig was previously a resident fellow at the Berkman Center in 2009-10. At Berkman he co-founded the Infrastructure Group
Quotations, interviews, and articles about Sandvig's research have appeared in stories in/on The Economist, The New York Times, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, Businessweek, CBS News, and other media outlets. Sandvig's writing appears in The Huffington Post.
Sandvig has been named a "next-generation leader in science and technology policy" in a faculty competition organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He previously received the Faculty Early Career Development Award from the US National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER) in the area of Human-Centered Computing.
Sandvig's scholarly work has received best paper awards at meetings of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and the Telecommunication Policy Research Conference (TPRC).
Sandvig is also a computer programmer with industry experience consulting for a Fortune 500 company, a regional government, and a San Francisco Bay Area software start-up. Sandvig received the Ph.D. in Communication Research from Stanford University in 2002.
