Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
. He is known for his research on social and organizational informatics, how people work together and how they use technology, and the relationships among changing forms of work & organization. Sawyer has worked on improving the social components of teamwork, as well as the distinctions between packaged and custom software development. His research is done through field-based studies of software developers, scientific collaborators, scientific data repositories, real estate agents, police officers, organizational technologists, and similar information-intensive work settings.
Marine Transportation
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it pro ...
at the
United States Merchant Marine Academy
The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Kings Point) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipman, midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) to serv ...
Ocean Engineering
Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...
at
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...
(1986). He earned another MS degree in
Management Information Systems
A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. The study of the management information systems involves peo ...
from Boston University (1989), where he eventually got his DBA. His 1995 doctoral thesis was titled ''"High-performing teams and support technology in software development".''
Career
Sawyer began his career as assistant professor at
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. In 1999, he was recruited to
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...
as an associate professor of computer science. There he was a founding member of School (now College) of Information Sciences and Technology. At Penn State, Sawyer was named the first IST Faculty Member of the Year in 2001 and won the inaugural George McMurtry Award for Teaching in 2002.
Sawyer returned to Syracuse as an associate professor in August 2008 and was promoted to full professor in 2011. He is a core faculty member in the Renée Crown University Honors Program.
Sawyer has published 47 articles, 37 refereed conference papers, three books, 28 book chapters, more than 70 invited talks.
Sawyer serves as an associate editor for ''Digital Threats: Research and Practice'' and ''Transactions on Computational Social Systems'' journals.
Sawyer serves as the
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
of the
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology
The ''Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of information science published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Association for Information Science a ...
''(JASIST)''. He is the senior editor for ''
Journal of Information Technology
The ''Journal of Information Technology'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research on information systems, organisational management, and computer science. The editors-in-chief are Daniel Schlagwein, Jan Marco Leimeis ...
'' and associate editor for ''
the Information Society
''The Information Society'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal on sociology, that was established in 1981. It is published five times per year by Routledge and covers topics related to information technologies and changes in society ...
''. He has also served on the editorial boards of ''
Journal of the Association for Information Systems
The ''Journal of the Association for Information Systems'' (JAIS) is a top-tier peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research in the areas of information systems and technology. It is an official journal of the Association for Information S ...
'' and ''New Technology, Work, and Employment''.
Awards
In 2021, Sawyer received the
Association for Information Science and Technology
The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is a nonprofit membership organization for information professionals that sponsors an annual conference as well as several serial publications, including the ''Journal of the Associ ...
''(ASIS&T)'' Award of Merit, the highest honor presented by the organization, for ''"particularly noteworthy and sustained contributions to the information science field"''.
Personal life
Sawyer is rower and has coached summer camp program at the Riverside boat club in Boston. He coached the United States Rowing team (lightweight men's sweep team) at the
1991 Pan American Games
The 1991 Pan American Games, officially known as the XI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Havana 1991 (), were held in Havana, Cuba from 2 to 18 August 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organi ...