Byron Reeves

Byron Reeves, Ph.D., is the Paul C. Edwards Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, and currently serves Co-Director of the Stanford H-STAR Institute (Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research), a Stanford laboratory working at the intersection of computing and social sciences. He is also Founder and Faculty Director of the Stanford Media X Program that organizes research and knowledge transfer between industry and Stanford researchers working on information technology.

Byron is an expert on the psychological processing of media in the areas of attention, emotions, and physiological responses, and is co-author of The Media Equation: How People Respond to Computer, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places. He has published over 100 research papers about media psychology and his research has been the basis for a number of products at companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard, in the areas of voice interfaces, automated dialogue systems, conversational agents, enterprise software and interaction design. He is currently working on applications of multi-player game technology to the conduct of serious work and is Co-Founder, with Leighton Read, of Seriosity, Inc.

Byron received his Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University, and his B.F.A. in Graphic Design and Journalism from Southern Methodist University. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford in 1986, Byron was a professor for ten years in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and Associate Director of the Mass Communication Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.