Dr. Dr. Iris Tabak is a senior lecturer (tenured assistant professor). She is the current President of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (www.isls.org), and an Associate Editor of The Journal of the Learning Sciences. Her research focuses on how knowledge and skill develop through interactions between agents, social, cognitive and material tools in naturalistic settings. She draws on cognitive and sociocultural theory to design advanced technologies for learning. Her teaching includes cognitive approaches to science education, qualitative research methods, design of computer-based learning environments, and classroom discourse. One of her central current projects is the EC FP7 project on Digital Support for Inquiry, Collaboration, and Reflection on Socio-Scientific Debates (www.coreflect.org) with 7 other European partners.

Dr. Tabak received a Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences from Northwestern University (1999). She holds a B.S.E in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. Academic distinctions include: NARST Outstanding Dissertation award (2001), NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA (1999-2000), Educational Testing Service Predoctoral Research Fellowship (Summer 1996), Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow (1998-1999), Rashi-Guastalla Fellow for the Advancement of Science Education (2001-2003), Mandel Fellow for Research in Education (2003), AERA Division C Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research in Learning Technologies.