Joanna McGrenere

Joanna McGrenere is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia and has served as the department’s Co-Head since September 2023. Her research spans Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Human-AI Interaction, with a focus on personalized user interfaces (including adaptive, adaptable, and mixed-initiative interfaces), universal usability, interactive technologies for older users and people with cognitive disorders, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and qualitative and quantitative evaluation methodologies. She received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2002, an MSc from the University of British Columbia in 1996, and a BSc from the University of Western Ontario in 1993. She held an Inria and Université de Paris-Saclay International Research Chair from 2017 to 2022; this was a historical appointment and does not represent her current organization.

She served as overall Technical Program Co-Chair for CHI 2020, Program Chair for ASSETS 2018, and Papers Co-Chair for CHI 2015, and is an editorial board member for ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction and ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing. Her honors include Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2025), ACM SIGCHI Academy Class of 2025, the UBC Killam Research Prize in Sciences (2024), ACM Distinguished Member (2022), membership in the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars (2017), the Microsoft Research Software Engineering Innovation Foundation Award (2013), and the UBC Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2012). She initiated and led HCI@UBC (2013–2015), later rebranded as the Designing for People initiative (2016–2024), and served as Curriculum Lead for the DFP graduate enrichment program from 2017 to 2024.

• September 2023–present·University of British Columbia·Co-Head, Department of Computer Science
• 2013–present·University of British Columbia·Professor
• July 2013–June 2015·University of British Columbia·Associate Head, Graduate Affairs
• July 2008–June 2013·University of British Columbia·Associate Professor
• July 2002–June 2008·University of British Columbia·Assistant Professor
• 2017–2022·Inria and Université de Paris-Saclay·International Research Chair
• 1997·IBM Toronto Lab·Researcher
• 1993–1994·IBM Canada·Programmer/Analyst

• 2002·University of Toronto·PhD in Computer Science
• 1996·University of British Columbia·MSc in Computer Science
• 1993·University of Western Ontario·BSc in Computer Science

• Personal homepage
• UBC Computer Science profile
• UBC CV (April 2025)
• UBC News expert profile
• UBC RSC Fellow award page
• UBC ACM SIGCHI Academy 2025 award page
• UBC Killam Research Prize award page
• Google Scholar

Public-source verification date: September 23, 2026.