Grace (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Advertising at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. She is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE) and the co-editor-in-chief of Media Psychology. Her main program of research investigates how immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality transform traditional rules of communication and social interactions, looking at how virtual experiences shape the way that people think, feel, and behave in the physical world.

Mondira (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Georgia Athens. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University. She is enthusiastic about exploring human-nature interaction, particularly evaluating the importance of nature exposure to human physical and psychological health. Her background in Environmental Science and research experience in public health support her research interests.

Alice is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, where she directs the Experience Lab and the Research Unit in Psychology of Music. She is a licensed psychologist and singer-songwriter. Her academic research focuses on complex emotions, transformative and aesthetic experiences, creativity, and immersive technologies, with particular interest in awe, sublime, flow, and group creativity.

Dani (Ph.D.) studies outdoor recreation and public land management. Dani's research is rooted in her professional background in conservation ecology, policy, and planning, as well as an interest in developing methods that use large secondary datasets and natural language processing.

Jiaying (Ph.D.) is a lecturer at Huaqiao University in China. Her primary research focus is on urban green space and public health, particularly the application of big data analysis within the context of sustainable city planning and design. She is also interested in the interplay between green space design and cultural heritage sites. Her work aims to enhance the design of heritage sites to create greener and healthier spaces for both visitors and local communities. By doing so, she seeks to foster heritage environment that benefits all stakeholders.

Tracy (PhD, FNP-BC, ACHPN) is the Associate Dean in the College of Health and Human Services and Director of the Wellstar School of Nursing Kennesaw State University. Tracey believes in the power of connecting patients and their caregivers to nature-based virtual reality. As a Nurse Researcher/Nurse Practitioner, she can attest to the critical needs of individuals struggling with serious illness. She is passionate about supporting aspiring students working to improve the quality of life for those with unmet physical, psychological, and spiritual needs.

Sam (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Equity in Forestry and Public Health at Michigan State University. Her research draws on epidemiology, psychology, and geography to identify place-based causes of health, particularly among mothers and children. Her current work explores causal effects and underlying mechanisms between greenspace and pregnancy outcomes.

Lincoln (PhD) is an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University. His research focus is conservation social science research and teaching focus on promoting sustainable human-environment interactions and fostering healthy relationships between people, parks, and nature.

Labib (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. His primary research focus is on developing novel quantitative spatial analytical approaches associated with geographic information science, spatial data science and remote sensing. Labib applies spatial analytics in health impact modeling to explore the influence of the built and natural environment (e.g., greenspace) on health outcomes.

Kangjae (PhD) is a spatial data scientist. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Location-based Information System at Kyungpook National University in South Korea. His research interests lie in GIScience and eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). His research topics include the investigation of the relationship between human health and environmental factors including green space and air quality and the effect of geographical factors on sales in commercial alleys.

Fu is a Visiting Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture Program in the Richard A. McMahan School of Architecture at Clemson University. He holds a Ph.D. in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management from Clemson University. His research interest falls into the study of human perception, cognition and behavior in the built environment, which mainly focuses on the human-environment interaction, assessing the impact of human well-being, and evaluating the performance of the design.

Hansen (PhD) is a Lecturer at Sichuan Agricultural University. His research interests in environmental health and physical activity. He aims to explore interdisciplinary methods to promote public health in the context of global urbanization.

Kapil (PhD) is the Wilfred P. Tiencken Endowed Professorship at Clemson University. His area of expertise is in applying the knowledge base of human factors to the design and operation of human-computer systems that involve rich interactions among people and technology. He draws on qualitative and quantitative methodologies including ethnography, contextual inquiry and controlled behavioral experiments to understand how humans perceive, make sense of, and interact with human-machine systems.

Jay (PhD) is the Regents Professor at Texas A&M University and director of the Center for Health & Nature.  His research focuses on nature as a health behavior.  His current research is multidisciplinary and includes health behavior, environmental epidemiology, behavioral economics, virtual reality and others.

Allison (Ph.D.) is the Interim Assistant Director in the Summer Scholars program at Clemson University, and an Adjunct Faculty Member at Canisius College. She holds her Ph.D. in Parks, recreation, and Tourism Management from Clemson University. Allison has a background in conservation education, ecology, and child and youth studies which influence her research interests. Currently her research focuses on immersive technology use in informal education settings and exploring the impacts of wildlife-inspired awe through real and virtual encounters.

Mike (PhD) is a research fellow in the area of environmental psychology and cognitive and clinical neuropsychology. He runs the BEEhive laboratory at Griffith University, which explores the use of the environment as a support in neurorehabilitation.

Alessandro (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. His research focuses on environmental and social issues related to green spaces. His three main areas of research include the policy determinants of green space visitation, the drivers of and solutions to housing prices around green spaces, and the associations between green space and health among different neighborhoods.

Aaron (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of clinical psychology at the University of Virginia Department of Psychology. Trained as a a clinical neuropsychologist, Aarons’s work is concerned with the interplay of the physical environment with brain and mental health across the lifespan. His research combines new technologies to quantitatively measure environmental exposures (mass spectrometry, remote sensing, wearable technology) with gold-standard assessments of neuropsychiatric function (clinical interview, cognitive assessment, neuroimaging) to generate novel theories about how neuropsychiatric diseases emerge and may be treated or prevented.

Seunguk (PhD) is an environmental social scientist and Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri. His research aims to understand how human-nature interactions shape the developmental path of environmental values and behavior. He focuses on outdoor recreation and experiential education as promising sources of positive experience with nature, especially beginning early in life. He is interested in using hands-on as well as simulated stimuli to explore different modes of human experience with nature.

Kailan (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Technical Writing at the University of North Florida. Her research goals are to better understand and leverage environmental communication in emerging technologies to inform future designs through critical analysis, participant observation, and interviews. Her recent scholarly writing includes an articles and chapters that focus on designing interactive media about wildlife and wilderness. Dr. Sindelar's other recent scholarly work includes collaborating with colleagues in UNF's Biology department to create AR and VR experiences that support local audience education about saltwater intrusions and affected ecologies.

Čedomir (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University, Department of Health & Wellness Design, School of Public Health – Bloomington. He is committed to research and the development of evidence-based practices that can contribute to positive health outcomes for individuals with disabilities. His research training and expertise have been shaped by ten years of clinical experience working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and are grounded within a person-centered and strengths-based approach.

Jason (PhD) is an Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Clemson University. He has focused his research on virtual reality (VR) simulation for patient treatment modalities and student nurse education. He is currently working on research projects involving the use of nature-based VR as a complementary treatment for hospice and palliative care patients.

Felipe (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at Clemson University. His research interests explore sport's relationship with tourism, heritage, events, politics, and virtual and mixed-reality tools.

Erin (PhD) is a clinical psychologist specializing in health psychology and medical education. She serves as Program Director for a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical health psychology, Behavioral Health Academic Program Director for a family medicine residency, and Assistant Professor & Psychiatry Clerkship Director at a medical school in Michigan. Her research focuses on the mental health and wellbeing benefits of nature in clinical and healthcare settings. She is passionate about advancing mental health care, protecting the natural environment, and promoting a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

Erica (PhD, RN) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, School of Nursing. She is an Integrative Nurse Faculty Fellow, an A. Marilyn Sime Research Fellow, a member of the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice, an Institute on the Environment 2024 Affiliate and has been a professor for over twenty years. Her area of research is focused on integrative nursing and wellbeing with a particular interest in the role of nature and forest therapy on the psychological and social well-being of pediatric, adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.

Kathy (PhD) is an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington, whose work focuses on promoting healthy aging and improving quality of life for older adults. Her research examines cognitive health and the lived experiences of individuals affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with a focus on developing and testing innovative, non-pharmacological, and person-centered interventions. Dr. Siepker also studies ways to strengthen family caregiving and community supports for older adults, emphasizing practical approaches that enhance their well-being and independence.

Amber (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the CS Mott Department of Public Health at Michigan State University. Her research is focused on how neighborhoods can bolster health, including amenable features such as green space. She uses geospatial techniques to quantify visual, auditory, and other forms of exposure.

Bob (PhD) is the George B. Hartzog, Jr. Endowed Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management and the Dept of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University and the Director of the Institute for Parks, which is an interdisciplinary institute focused on providing research, training, and outreach to support park and protected area management. His research and outreach program focuses on environmental education, interpretation, park and protected areas, and sustainable tourism and he is the co-editor of the Journal of Interpretation Research.

Ray (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He has a background in health geography, greenspace, pollution exposure, and cardiovascular health research. His current work focuses on developing a better understanding of links between greenspace and health and research to maximize the health co-benefits of greenspace interventions for climate adaptation.

Shuai (PhD) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has a background in architecture. His research centers on the physical and social contexts of the environment and human well-being. His dissertation used virtual reality (VR) and eye tracking to examine how the presence of other visitors impacts urban park perceptions. He also used VR interventions for health and coping behaviors (e.g., storm surge mitigation). Shuai is also passionate about visualization, interdisciplinary theory building, and flexible use of methods.

Lila is an undergraduate Landscape Architecture student at Clemson University interested in how virtual reality technology can strengthen fire-adapted design. She is focused on helping homeowners understand wildfire risk and make proactive decisions to protect their homes and surrounding landscapes.

Hunter Beard is an undergraduate Political Science major at Clemson University and former full-time firefighter with academic interests in emergency management, public policy, and policy implementation. He aims to combine virtual reality and his practical experiences to strengthen community resilience and disaster preparedness.

Matt is a John Jay High School student who is researching the effects of a novel personalized virtual reality scene matching algorithm and application on the mental health of astronauts via a general population preliminary study. His research combines the areas of aerospace medicine, virtual nature, and computer science to mitigate the mental health issues associated with long duration social isolation in deep space travel with several additional outside applications. Awards received: 1st place, Behavioral Science Category, Regeron, Westchester Science and Engineering Fair, High School Science Competition; Finalist, Regereon ISEF National Science Fair,

Charlie is an undergraduate Psychology major at UCLA pursuing minors in Brain and Behavioral Health and Philosophy. His work focuses on consciousness and perception, specifically how culture, belief, and neurobiology shape lived experience, with particular interest in psychedelic medicine and its potential for treating and preventing mental illness.

Emma is a Digital Arts Major and Computer Science Minor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Eliza is an undergraduate student studying Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Clemson University. Eliza is enthusiastic about fostering connections and engaging communities, and using virtual reality to help prepare communities for wildfires.

Mary is an Iona University undergraduate student studying education who wants to determine the role of nature immersion in the process of adapting a stress mindset. Through combining a stress mindset intervention with an immersive nature walk, her research shows how to restore the directed attention of adolescents in high school and thus help adolescents manage their stress more effectively. Awards received: 1st place, Somers Science Fair; 3rd place, Ossining High School Science Competition; Senior Address Speaker, Ossining High School Science Symposium

Shanzay is a Ossining High School student interested in virtual reality, physiological indicators of stress, and different types of natural landscapes. Awards received: 1st Place, Somers Science Fair, Somers, NY; 2nd, Westchester Science & Engineering Fair, Lincolndale, NY

Robert is a Clemson University undergraduate student who is currently pursuing a Dual Degree within Audio Technology and Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. By utilizing a combination of audio skills and natural knowledge, Robert plans to contribute towards VRN Lab projects while using auditory senses as a pathway to unique virtual experiences.

Adriana Rooney is an undergraduate student studying landscape architecture at Clemson University and pursuing a minor in Community Development and City Planning. She wants to explore the intersection of landscape design, technology, and wildfire resilience in hopes to contribute a design-focused perspective to the development and testing of FireReady VR while learning how interdisciplinary collaboration can create tools that help communities.

Marianne is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in Philosophy, with a focus on medical ethics and research. Originally from the Philippines, she immigrated to California before serving six years in the U.S. Navy and continues her service today as a Reservist. Beyond her academic studies, student government, and military commitments, Marianne enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, and their pets.