Katherine Isbister

Katherine Isbister is a full professor in the Department of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she directs the Center for Computational Experience. She was previously an associate professor jointly appointed between the Computer Science department at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and the NYU Game Center, and served as the founding Research Director of the Game Innovation Lab at NYU.

Her research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction and digital games, focusing on emotion, social connection, and playful experiences. Key research themes include emotion in games, social play, fidget technologies, social VR, and digital characters. Her work combines technical prototyping, design research, and empirical evaluation to understand how interactive systems can support emotional and social experiences.

Her publications span top venues such as CHI, DIS, and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. Trends in her recent work show a strong emphasis on embodied interaction, affective design, and socio-technical systems for emotional regulation and social connection. She explores how movement, touch, and presence in virtual spaces can enhance human experience.

• MIT Technology Review TR100 Young Innovator (1999)
• Best Paper Award, ACM CSCW (2018)
• New Voices New Visions Award (for SimWorks art series)

She has advised numerous students and led research projects involving social wearables, movement-based games, and mental health interventions. Her lab has received recognition from media outlets including NPR, Scientific American, and The Guardian. She has also collaborated with industry partners such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft.

She leads the Center for Computational Experience at UCSC and has previously directed the Game Innovation Lab at NYU. Her team has produced over 100 peer-reviewed publications and several exhibition-ready games and art installations.