Professor Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognised artist, a research scientist and a pioneer of 3D computer graphics, human motion simulation and interactive media. She was director of the Liminal Devices research group at Media Lab Europe in Dublin until the lab’s closing in February 2005. She holds a Professorship at the Department of Design | Media Arts at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where she was founding Chair of the department and founding Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Digital Arts. From 1996-2002 she directed the Emergence Project at UCLA, an Intel funded research effort involving artificial life, 3D virtual environments, augmented reality and unique multimodal interfaces.

Previously, Allen was Creative Director/Executive Producer and 3D Visionary at Virgin Interactive Entertainment; she was a member of the world-renowned NYIT Computer Graphics Laboratory and MIT’s Architecture Machine Group (predecessor of MIT Media Lab). Allen has worked extensively in Europe and the US, producing commissioned projects in Spain, Germany, Italy, England, New York and Los Angeles. In addition, she has designed and directed research-oriented projects for numerous clients including CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS/Nova, BBC, TVE (Spain), Time Warner, Island, Mattel, Philips, Nintendo, Taejon World Expo, Seville World Expo, Apple and DARPA. Her artwork is exhibited internationally and is part of the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and Centre Georges Pompidou. Her many awards include an Emmy award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Design.