Professor Hans Gellersen of Lancaster’s School of Computing and Communications has been announced as a recipient of an Induction into the SIGCHI (Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction) Academy. The award is granted to those individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the study of human-computer interaction and are considered leaders in within the discipline. Professor Gellersen, alongside other recipients, has been honoured at the ACM CHI conference in Honolulu, Hawaii which took place in 11-14 May this year.

The SIGCHI is the world’s largest association of professionals and academics who contribute towards the development of human-computer interaction (HCI). Founded in the 1980s and comprised of over 5000 members, SIGCHI is an interdisciplinary body which brings together computer scientists, psychologists, engineers, and even anthropologists to share their understanding and expertise of HCI in order to work towards useful and usable technologies for everyone.

The SIGCHI Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of human-computer interaction. These are leaders of the field, whose cumulative contributions have led the research and/or innovation in human-computer interaction. Professor Gellersen, a professor of interactive systems at both Lancaster University and Aarhus University in Denmark, has been working in the field of HCI since the mid 90’s. His early work – on computing in everyday objects – explored systems that blend the physical and the digital together. For the past 10 years, his research groups have contributed to major innovations on the role gaze and gesture play within HCI, and more recently in VR and augmented reality. He is currently spearheading the GEMINI project based at Lancaster, which is an European Research Council Advanced grant into how head, eye, hand, and body movements work in tandem when it comes to how we interact with computer technologies. GEMINI has an upcoming workshop in June, which will explore gaze, gestures, and multimodal interaction with experts from across a range of disciplines presenting their research.

On the receipt of the award, Professor Gellersen commented: "I am delighted to have been inducted into the SIGCHI Academy for my long-standing contribution to the field of Human-Computer Interaction. This is a great honour and wonderful recognition for work with so many amazing students, postdocs, colleagues and collaborators."

Professor Sas, Assistant Dean for Research Enhancement in the Faculty of Science and Technology mentioned: “Professor Gellersen’s contribution to the HCI community has been profound and sustained from founding the Ubicomp conference series in 1999 to his current ERC Advanced Grant, recognised through many awards for best papers and lifetime achievements.”