Not registered as user yet
Distinguished Professor Dr. Diane Gromala is the Founding Director of the Pain Studies Lab at Simon Fraser University. Her research bridges Design and Technology and focusses on innovative uses of XR for managing chronic conditions. Dr. Gromala’s pioneering research in VR and pain began in 1991 and has been recognized this year by AWE XR and AMXRA.
Characterized as deeply collaborative, her clinical use of VR is frequently tested ‘in the wild’ of hospitals, clinics and patients’ homes. This award-winning work has been widely recognized by HCI, Design and Health communities, from one of Google’s earliest Moonshots to the Cannes Film Festival’s Health Lions and the AIGA. Her interdisciplinary research is supported by the Paul Allen and MacArthur Foundations, CIHR/NIH, NSERC/NSF, MITACS, Canada Research Chair and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Internationally-recognized as a STEM expert, Dr. Gromala sits on boards of tech companies and reviews university curricula that bridge technology and design such as the NSF’s IGERT program at MIT. She authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored the MITPress book Windows and Mirrors. Early versions of her VR work were exhibited worldwide at TEDx and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, was widely covered by media outlets such as Discovery Channel, the BBC, CNN and NHK, and is in permanent collections of museums such as the MOMA. Her degrees in HCI and Design are from the University of Plymouth, the University of Michigan and Yale, and her industry work at Apple in the 1980s continues to define her approach for building and testing computers ‘for the rest of us.’
Contributions