Dr. Michael L. Best is assistant professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology where he is a research director with their GVU Center. He is also a Fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Professor Best is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Information Technologies and International Development published by the MIT Press. He is a frequent consultant to the World Bank, ITU, and USAID. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT and has served as Director of Media Lab Asia in India and head of the eDevelopment group at the MIT Media Lab.

His research focuses on information and communication technologies for social, economic, and political development. In particular, he studies mobile phones, the internet, and internet-enabled services and their design, impact, and importance within low-income countries of Africa and Asia.  He researches engineering, public policy, hci/usability, and sustainability issues as well as methods to assess and evaluate social, economic, and political development outcomes. He is also interested in the impact of information and communication technologies on the development-security nexus and in post-conflict peace and reconciliation.