Jeremy Bailenson

Jeremy Bailenson is the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab and holds the Thomas More Storke Professorship in the Department of Communication. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor (by courtesy) in the Graduate School of Education and Symbolic Systems Program. His research focuses on the psychology of Virtual and Augmented Reality, examining how immersive experiences alter perceptions of self and others.

• B.A., University of Michigan (1994)
• M.S. and Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, Northwestern University (1996, 1999)
• Post-Doctoral Fellow and Assistant Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara (2000-2004)

Bailenson’s lab develops systems for virtual social interaction, exploring transformations in education, environmental conservation, empathy, and health. His work has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation for over 25 years and has produced over 200 academic papers across communication, computer science, education, environmental science, law, linguistics, marketing, medicine, political science, and psychology.

He has received numerous accolades including the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford (2007) and IEEE’s Virtual/Augmented Reality Technical Achievement Award (2020). Bailenson co-authored the Amazon Best-seller Infinite Reality, cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and authored Experience on Demand, reviewed by major global publications.

Bailenson’s lab has created six Tribeca Film Festival VR documentaries and exhibited at venues from The Smithsonian to The Superbowl. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in Communication for over a decade and currently teaches courses like Advanced Topics in Human Virtual Representation and Virtual People.