Gregory F. Welch

Gregory F. Welch is the Pegasus Professor and AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Simulation at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He holds appointments in the College of Nursing, Department of Computer Science, and the Institute for Simulation & Training. As Co-Director of the Synthetic Reality Laboratory, his research focuses on virtual/augmented reality, human-computer interaction, and healthcare/defense applications. Welch earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science (UNC Chapel Hill, 1997) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology (Purdue University, 1986). Prior roles include work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Northrop-Grumman.

His awards include IEEE Virtual Reality Academy induction (2022), IEEE VR Technical Achievement Award (2018), and ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneer recognition. He maintains an influential Kalman Filter website with over 12,000 citations. Welch serves as an IEEE Technical Expert for VR/AR and Vice Chair for Conferences in the Visualization and Graphics Technical Community.

Notable contributions include the physical-virtual patient system for medical training and innovations in augmented reality interfaces. His work bridges computer science with healthcare and defense sectors, emphasizing human-centric design and cross-disciplinary collaboration.