From HAII to UQ: Farewell to Lisa Townsend
- Announcement

After an exciting and highly productive year at HAII, Lisa Townsend is moving to Brisbane, Australia, to start her PhD at The University of Queensland (UQ).
Lisa joined the Human-AI Interaction chair after completing her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction at LMU Munich. Over the past year, her work has focused on HCI research at the intersection of Extended Reality (XR) and Artificial Intelligence, with a particular emphasis on transformative Virtual Reality experiences for connectedness and wellbeing. In addition to teaching and supervising students, Lisa engaged in numerous international exchanges, including a winter school in Austria organised by the LMU Media Informatics Group, a 6-week research stay at The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, and a SocialXR spring school at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam.
A notable highlight of her time with our group was the ACM CHI 2026 Conference in Barcelona, where Lisa presented our paper, “A Tree’s Perspective: Enhancing Nature Connectedness Through Transitional and Multisensory Virtual Reality Experiences”, which received an Honourable Mention Award.


In October 2026, Lisa will begin her PhD with the Human-Centred Computing Team at UQ, funded through the university’s competitive Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. Her interdisciplinary PhD is situated at the intersection of Computer Science and Psychology and will investigate immersive XR experiences and their potential to support human wellbeing and behaviour.
We thank Lisa for her valuable contributions, energy, and dedication to the chair, and we congratulate her on securing the PhD candidature. We wish her all the best and continued success for her research journey in Australia!
