The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious award given by ACM's SIGCHI, and is awarded to those who have made the greatest contributions to the study of human-computer interaction (HCI) and who have led the shaping of the field.

James D. Foley is the Stephen Fleming Chair in Telecommunications at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech and was the founding director of the Graphics, Visualization & Usability (GVU) Center within the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.

Foley was one of the computer graphics pioneers who helped to establish HCI as a discipline. He is the first author of the leading text in computer graphics, part of which deals with core technical HCI issues such as input devices, interaction techniques, and dialogue design. He has contributed over 80 publications spanning computer graphics, input devices, visualization, user interface evaluation, perceptual issues, and user interfaces.

The GVU Center has become a major center for HCI research, the training of students and future faculty, and the codification of courses and content in the field.

According to the SIGCHI 2007 Awards website, "It is difficult to think of anyone who had a larger role in the institutionalization of HCI as a discipline."