Lennart E. Nacke

Lennart E. Nacke is a Professor, Associate Director (Graduate Studies), and University Research Chair at the University of Waterloo’s Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. He also directs the HCI Games Group at Waterloo’s Games Institute. He teaches user experience, human-computer interaction, and game design, and studies how video and exercise games affect engagement, player psychology, and behaviour, as well as how generative AI affects people. His research covers gamification, games user research, VR/XR, health and fitness games, and affective gaming. University of Waterloo materials state that he has published more than 200 academic papers and co-edited Games User Research (Oxford University Press, 2018).

• 2024–Present·University of Waterloo, Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business | Professor, University Research Chair, and Associate Director (Graduate Studies)
• 2015–2024·University of Waterloo, Department of Communication Arts | Associate Professor (the 2020 institutional CV records this as current; current 2024–2026 pages list him as Professor)
• 2011–2015·University of Ontario Institute of Technology (now Ontario Tech University) | Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Games
• 2012–2013·University of Sussex | Visiting Lecturer
• 2010–2011·University of Saskatchewan | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Computer Science

• 2006/08–2010/01·Blekinge Institute of Technology | PhD in Digital Game Development
• 2005·Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg | Master’s (Diplom) in Computervisualistik
• 2004·Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg | Bachelor’s (Bakkalaureat) in Computervisualistik

• 2024 | University of Waterloo University Research Chair (seven-year appointment beginning July 1, 2024)
• 2014 | Recognition of Service Award for chairing CHI PLAY; Recognition of Service Award from the CHI Games and Entertainment Community Spotlight
• 2014 | Ubisoft Academia Competition Best Programming Award (Team Clan Combat Supervisor)
• 2013 | Ubisoft Academia Competition Best Marketing Plan Award (Team Euphoria Supervisor)
• 2012 | CSCW Best Paper (the Waterloo CV labels it among the top 1% of accepted papers)

• Co-edited Games User Research with Anders Drachen and Pejman Mirza-Babaei (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• Co-authored “From game design elements to gamefulness: defining gamification” with Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, and Rilla Khaled (2011).
• Ongoing research themes include games user research, gamification user types, player experience, VR/XR, and generative AI in games.

• University of Waterloo faculty profile
• HCI Games Group profile
• University Research Chair appointment announcement
• Waterloo Senate CV (PDF, p. 202)

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