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The Center for Mobile Communication Studies is the world’s first academic unit to focus solely on social aspects of mobile communication. Established in June 2004 at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, the Center has become an international focal point for research, teaching and service on the social, psychological and organizational consequences of the burgeoning mobile communication revolution.

Center staff conducts leading-edge investigations into how mobile communication is affecting human behavior as well as mobile technology’s long-term organizational and policy implications. The Center helps develop innovative courses to enhance student understanding of mobile communication. Its activities deepen the Communication Department’s core focus on mediated communication in undergraduate and graduate coursework and outreach.

The Center provides critical commentary and advice for public and non-profit groups and assists private sector organizations through research, information dissemination, and expert consultation. The Center hosts visiting scholars and conducts international workshops. Linkages are encouraged with area scholars and organizations that share research interests.

James E. Katz, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Rutgers University where he also directs the Center for Mobile Communication Studies. Katz was named by the Rutgers Board as Board of Governors Professor of Communication. Established in 1989, Board of Governors Professorships recognize exceptional scholarship and accomplishment by a faculty member at full professorial rank. It is the highest honorific conferred on active faculty by Rutgers University.

Professor Katz has devoted much of his career to exploring the social consequences of new communication technology, especially the mobile phone and Internet. Currently he is looking at how personal communication technologies can be used by teens from urban environments to engage in informal science and health learning. This research is being carried out through an NSF-sponsored project with New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center.

Among his recent awards are the 2009 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Twentieth Century Communications History (Italy) and election as Fellow of the AAAS, one of America’s most important scientific societies. Other awards include Bellcore’s Distinguished Member of Staff Award, a Mellon Foundation Scholar award, and the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communication.

Katz has been granted two patents in the telecommunication realm and has won post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard and MIT. He is also the author of more than 50 refereed journal articles. His books, which include Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life and Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, Expression, have been translated into Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. His latest volume, published by MIT Press, is Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies.

Prior to coming to Rutgers, Professor Katz headed the social science research unit at Bell Communications Research. Among the schools at which Katz has taught is University of Texas, Austin, where he also served as chair of the Austin World Affairs Council. Katz is frequently interviewed about his research by the press, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, as well as network news programs and PBS NewsHour.