Christian Sandvig

Christian Sandvig is a faculty associate at the Berkman Center and was previously a resident fellow from 2009-10.  Sandvig’s research focuses on the development of new information technology infrastructure. His work has examined 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. In addition, as part of his research on decentralized wireless Internet funded by the National Science Foundation, he developed a technique that predicts Wi-Fi density per city block in the United States (called The RED Project). At Berkman he co-founded the Infrastructure Group.

Sandvig is also Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Communication, Media and Cinema Studies, and at the Coordinated Science Laboratory. At the University of Illinois Sandvig leads the Project on Public Policy and Advanced Communication Technology.

In 2002 Sandvig was named a "next-generation leader in science and technology policy" in a junior faculty competition organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006 he received the Faculty Early Career Development Award from the US National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER). Sandvig received the Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University and previously served as Markle Foundation Information Policy Fellow at Oxford University.

Sandvig's research has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council of New York, the MacArthur Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the United Kingdom, the Internet Society, and Intel Research, among others. 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 (now bankrupt, with the rest of them). He is a member of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

Sometimes he writes about himself in the third person.