Erik Wolf

Erik Wolf is a research associate at the University of Hamburg's Department of Informatics, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Extended Reality (XR) technologies. His work focuses on optimizing presence in virtual environments through studies of plausibility, co-presence, and place illusion, particularly in the Horizon Europe project 'PRESENCE'. Prior to this role, he completed his PhD at the University of Würzburg, investigating Individual-, System-, and Application-Related Factors Influencing the Perception of Virtual Humans in Virtual Environments.

• Education:
  • Bachelor's and Master's in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Würzburg
  • Visiting researcher at University of Queensland's Cognitive Engineering Research Group (2016-2017)
• Research Interests:
  • XR User Experience
  • Virtual Human Perception
  • Body Awareness & Self-Identification in VR
  • Digital Health Applications
  • Presence & Immersion
• Scientific Contributions:
  • Developed validated scales for virtual human plausibility
  • Explored avatar personalization effects on body perception
  • Investigated multimodal interaction frameworks
  • Created tools for intelligent virtual humans development

His work has been recognized with multiple awards including the DIVR Science Award 2019 and multiple Best Paper distinctions. He serves as a reviewer for leading conferences including IEEE VR, ACM CHI, and IEEE ISMAR.