Murray Turoff (February 13, 1936 – October 28, 2022 ) was a Distinguished Professor at

New Jersey Institute of Technology New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a Public university, public research university in Newark, New Jersey, United States, with a graduate-degree-granting satellite campus in Jersey City. Founded in 1881 with the support of local indust ...

(NJIT) who was a key founding father of

computer-mediated communication Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated forma ...

Career

Turoff received his B.A. degree in Mathematics and Physics from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

in 1958. He received his PhD in Physics from

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

in 1965. Turoff has served as Chairperson of the ''Information Systems Department'', acting Chairperson of the ''Computer and Information Science'' Department as well as Director of Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center during his tenure at NJIT. He was also simultaneously a member of the faculty at

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

''Graduate School of Management'' between 1982 and 2005. Turoff co-founded the ''Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management'' ( ISCRAM) community. After his retirement he held the title '' Distinguished Professor

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

'' in the Information Systems Department at

Major projects

Turoff was the designer of the ''Emergency Management Information System And Reference Index'' (EMISARI), which was the first group communication-oriented crisis management system and which was used for the 1971 Wage Price Freeze and assorted federal crisis events until the mid-1980s. He designed and implemented EIES (Electronic Information Exchange System) as part of a 25-year research program into the design of structured Computer Mediated Communications Systems (CMC) to conduct field trials and evaluations of alternative applications of human communications via computers.

Publications

He has authored or co-authored 8 books including ''The Network Nation'' (with his wife Starr Roxanne Hiltz) which won the TSM Award of the

Association of American Publishers The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercial ...

for the ''Best Technical Publication'' in 1978 which went on to become the defining document and standard reference of its time for the field of

computer mediated communication Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more Consumer electronics, electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via com ...

Awards

Turoff was awarded the

EFF Pioneer Award The EFF Award, formerly EFF Pioneer Award, is an annual prize by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for people who have made significant contributions to the empowerment of individuals in using computers. Venue Until 1998 it was presented ...

in 1994 for "significant and influential contributions to computer-based communications and to the empowerment of individuals in using computers." In 2018 he was inducted into the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences.

References

*"website" http://is.njit.edu/turoff
"Full Vita of Murray Turoff" ''The Network Nation''
* ttp://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/csi.html "Social and Psychological Effects in Computer-Mediated Communication (Moses A. Boudourides)" {{DEFAULTSORT:Turoff, Murray 1936 births 2022 deaths UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Brandeis University alumni New Jersey Institute of Technology faculty People from San Francisco