Daniel Thalmann

Expertise Virtual humans, Crowd Simulation, Virtual reality, Real-time computer graphics, Augmented Reality, Social Robotics Prof. Daniel Thalmann is a Swiss and Canadian Computer Scientist. He is currently Honorary Professor at EPFL and Director of Research development at MIRALab Sarl. Pioneer in research on Virtual Humans, his current research interests include social robots, crowd simulation and Virtual Reality. Daniel Thalmann has been the Founder of The Virtual Reality Lab (VRlab) at EPFL, Switzerland, Professor at The University of Montreal and Visiting Professor/ Researcher at CERN, University of Nebraska, University of Tokyo, and National University of Singapore. From 2009 to 2017, he was Visiting Professor at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is coeditor-in-chief of the Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, and member of the editorial board of 12 other journals. Daniel Thalmann was member of numerous Program Committees, Program Chair and CoChair of several conferences including IEEE VR, ACM VRST, and ACM VRCAI. Daniel Thalmann has published more than 600 papers in Graphics, Animation, and Virtual Reality. He is coeditor of 30 books, and coauthor of several books including 'Crowd Simulation' (second edition 2012) and 'Stepping Into Virtual Reality' (second edition 2023), published by Springer. He received his PhD in Computer Science in 1977 from the University of Geneva and an Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa) from University Paul- Sabatier in Toulouse, France, in 2003. He also received the Eurographics Distinguished Career Award in 2010, the 2012 Canadian Human Computer Communications Society Achievement Award, and the CGI 2015 Career Achievement. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_ThalmannConferences Founder and Member Steering Committee Computer Graphics Society (CGS)Member Steering Committee, ACM Virtual Reality Software Technology (VRST)Member Steering Committee, ACM Virtual Reality Continuum and its Applications in Industry (VRCAI)Program CoChair, CASA 2026, Geneva, Switzerland, June 2026Program CoChair, CGI 2026, Bournemouth, UK, July 2026  Program CoChair, CASA 2025, Strasbourg, France, June 2025Program CoChair, CGI 2025, HongKong, China, July 2025  Program CoChair, CASA 2024, Wuhan, China, June 2024Program CoChair, CGI 2024, Geneva, Switzerland, July 2024Program CoChair CASA 2023, Limassol, Cyprus, June 2023Program CoChair CGI 2023, Shanghai, China, August 2023CoChair ACM VRCAI 2022, Guangzhu, China, December 2022Program CoChair, CGI 2022, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2022 (Virtual)Program CoChair, 5th International Conference on Virtual reality Technology, Nov.2022 | Shanghai, ChinaProgram CoChair, CASA 2022Program CoChair, CGI 2021, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2021 (Virtual)Program CoChair, CASA 2021, Ottawa, Canada, July 2021 (virtual)Program CoChair, CGI 2020, Geneva, Switzerland, June 2020 (Virtual)Program CoChair, CASA 2020, Bournemouth, UK, May 2020 (Virtual)Co-Chair, ISVC 14th International Symposium on Visual Computing, Virtual Reality area, Lake Tahoe, USA, October 2019Program CoChair, CASA 2019, Paris, France, July 2019Program CoChair, WEB3D 2018Program CoChair, CGI 2018Program CoChair, CASA 2018Program CoChair, CGI 2017Program CoChair, CGI 2016Program CoChair, CASA 2016Program CoChair, CASA 2015Program CoChair, CASA 2014Program CoChair, CGI 2014Program CoChair, ACM VRST 2013Program CoChair, CVM 2013Program CoChair, CASA 2013Program CoChair, CGI 2012Program CoChair, ICVR 2011Program CoChair, CASA 2010Program CoChair, ACM VRST 2009Program CoChair, ACM VRCAI 2009Program CoChair, CAD GRAPHICS 2009Program CoChair, CGI 2008Program CoChair, ACM VRCAI 2008Program CoChair, Virtual Rehabilitation 2007Program CoChair, CGI 2007CoChair, Symposium on Intelligent Embedded Systems, Chennai, India, March 2017CoChair, ACM VRCAI 2016CoChair, ACM VRST 2015CoChair, Workshop on Visual Computing for Social and Cognitive Robots, CVM 2015CoChair, SIGGRAPH Asia 2014 Workshop on Autonomous Virtual Humans and SocialRobots in TelePresenceCoChair, ACM VRCAI 2012CoChair, CyberWorlds 2011CoChair, CASA 2011CoChair, ACM VRST 2008CoChair, CyberWorlds 2008Chair, CGIM 2008CoChair, CASA 2007CoChair, ACM/Eurographics Symposium on Computer Animation 2007 (SCA 2007)CoChair and Program Chair, CyberWorlds 2006CoChair, ACM VRCIA 2006CoChair, VSMM 2006download Complete CVPrivate Married to Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann3 children: Melanie Vanessa SabrinaSports and hobbies: tennis, golf, skiProfessional Co-editor-in-chief, Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual WorldsAssociate Editor, The Visual Computer, Frontiers in Robotics and AI - Virtual Environments, Transactions on Edutainment, Journal Of Universal Computer Science, Computer Graphics & Geometry, International Journal Of Human Factors Modelling And Simulation, International Journal Of Virtual Reality,International Review on Computers and Software Teaching & PhD Past EPFL PhD Students Ying Yang, Jianhua Shen, Zhiyong Huang, Hansruedi Noser, Pascal Becheiraz, Tolga Capin, Walter Maurel, Tom Molet, Luciana Porcher Nedel, Srikanth Satya Bandi, Luc Emering, Christian Babski, Soraia Raupp Musse, Nathalie Farenc, Selim Saffet Balcisoy, Marcelo Kallmann, Joaquim Esmerado, Pierre Abel, Jean-Sébastien Monzani, Amaury Aubel, Ik Soo Lim, Anthony Guye-Vuillème, Michal Ponder, Branislav Ulicny, Patrick Roger Ernest Lemoine, Mario Gutiérrez Alonso, Bruno Herbelin, Jan Ciger, Anderson Maciel, Toni Conde, Sébastien Schertenleib, Sofiane Sarni, Etienne De Sevin, Tolga Abaci, Pascal Glardon, Pablo Stanislaw De Heras Ciechomski, Barbara Yersin, Jonathan Maim, Helena Stephanie Grillon Le Gallennec, Renaud Ott, Achille Peternier, Alejandra Garcia Rojas Martinez, Schubert Ribeiro de Carvalho, Ehsan Arbabi, Patrick Salamin, Damien Maupu, Sylvain Cardin, Xavier Righetti, Hareesh Puthiya Veettil, Anders Sandholm, Mathieu Hopmann Awards Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa) University Paul-Sabatier in Toulouse, France 2003 Distinguished Career Award Eurographics 2010 2012 Canadian Human Computer Communications Society Achievement Award Canadian Human Computer Communications Society 2012 CGI Career Achievement Award Computer graphics Society 2015 Honorary Member EuroXR 2025