- University of East London, Ph.D. 2007. SmartLab (Computer Information Sciences) Program. Dissertation title: Meaning and Emplacement in Expressive, Immersive Virtual Environments. Thesis online at http://www.morie.org/thesis/
- University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, M.S., 1988. Computer and Information Sciences. Primary emphasis in computer graphics and applications. Master's Thesis: Computer Animations and Simulations Used as Courtroom Evidence.
- University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, M.F.A., 1984. Major in Photography, Minor in Printmaking. Master's Thesis: Integrated Fantasies. Merging traditional photographic elements with early forms of computer-generated images in an analog darkroom.
- Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, B.F.A., 1981. Major focus on Photography and Photo-printmaking.
- Palm Beach Junior College, Lake Worth, FL, 1976-1978. Studies in Science, Pre-med, and Graphic Art for Medical Illustration.
- Mackinac College, Mackinac Island, MI, 1968-1969. Studies in English Literature.
Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie is widely known as a pioneer in Virtual Reality (VR), especially in its use to deliver meaningful experiences that enrich people’s lives. From 1990 to 1994, Morie worked as an artist, researcher and educator at the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training. While there, she developed multi-sensory techniques for VR that predictably elicit emotional responses from participants, using psychology and art to create environments that ranged from disquieting to nostalgic. She continues this work today, resulting in a decades long career in this field.
In 1999, she helped establish the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), an Army-funded research lab finding connections between entertainment and military needs. She spent 14 years there as a Senior Research Scientist, expanding her work in emotionally evocative VR, including patenting a scent collar to deliver evocative odors to participants within immersive experiences.
Previous to ICT, her career included exceptional accomplishments in education, creating specialized training programs for both traditional and digital aspects of production at the Ringling College of Art and Design, UCLA, the University of Central Florida, the Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios, VIFX, Blue Sky, Rhythm and Hues and Upload VR.
In 2011 Morie started her company All These Worlds, LLC to promote virtual environments and technology for healing. She is active in online 3D virtual worlds (social VR) has applied her techniques to these worlds for Mindfulness applications, storytelling and healing for veterans and soldiers. Her Coming Home project, started in 2009, created a center in the online world Second Life, where those in need could find stress relief and rehabilitation activities. She often incorporates intelligent avatar agents in virtual worlds to aid humans in their healing, training or artistic activities in the virtual spaces.
In her work for NASA, Dr Morie created a virtual world ecosystem called ANSIBLE designed to provide psychological benefits for future astronauts who will undertake extremely long missions to Mars. ANSIBLE was tested in an analog facility called HISEAS in Hawaii, where a team of six scientists was sequestered for a full year to simulate the conditions of isolation on Mars, including communications delays. The virtual world provided psychological benefits to this crew, alleviating some effects of social isolation and sensory deprivation.
Morie is an active member of the serious games community, and was part of the core team that designed ElectroAdventure (1992-1994) a training game for Navy recruits that had an AI base to adapt lessons to the learner’s style. She serves as a juror for IndieCade, a festival that promotes independent games of all types from young designers. She is a member of ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH, and initiated the ACM SIGGRAPH Digital Arts Community, with the mission to expand and enhance SIGGRAPH’s presence in the arts. Dr. Morie’s other research interests include how space, identity and play in virtual worlds can positively affect our human nature, and the importance of our increasing use of avatar to represent us in the digital world. She peaks widely on this topics at conferences worldwide.
Dr. Morie has advanced degrees in both Fine Art and Computer Science, and is currently on the board of directors of several future-oriented immersive media companies. She serves as senior technical advisor to the XPRIZE’s ANA Avatar Prize, which challenges teams to create a robotic avatar people can inhabit from a distance. Her new 22-chapter book, co-edited with Kate McCallum, The Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media, was published in early 2020. She also enjoys sharing her expertise in the classes she teaches at the Otis College of Art and Design.
Virtual World Society, 2016. Nextant Medallion Award for Supporting VR for Good work of the Society.
Center for Conscious Creativity Future Visions Award, 2014. Given to the work Mindfulness in a Virtual World by Morie and team including Dr. Valerie Rice, Dr. Steve Hickman, Alan Goldstein, and Eric Chance. The C3 Future Visions award acknowledges content creators and artists who are dedicated to using the power of the arts and media to create socially beneficial and transformational projects themed around the future.
Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge (2011), an annual, global challenge, led by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory - Simulation & Training Technology Center. With the VIGOR Team, won 2nd place in the AI: Patterns of Life category.
Listed in Richard Saul Wurman’s 2002 book 1000: The Most Creative Individuals in the USA. Entry 655.
Member of the DARPA ISAT Information Science and Technology (ISAT) member, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) advisory panel whose charter includes identifying opportunities for research programs. 2012-2015.
VES (Visual Effects Society) 1998-present. One of the initial 150 members.
ACM SIGGRAPH (Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics), 1987-present. Director at Large, ACM SIGGRAPH Strategic Executive Committee. 2003-2004 and 2010 – 2013; re-elected 2013- 2016.
Widely published and sought after speaker on digital and futuristic topics.
Selected Exhibitions
- Goddesses Ex Machina: 2003 Merlino Gallery, Cal State Long Beach, October 2003
- Gravity and Grace: Objects as Re-Collection, One-person show at the Tah Gallery, Pasadena, CA, October-November 1997
- Worlds within the Artist: 2D, 3D, and Realtime Computer Graphics, & Box Assemblages. One-person show at Walt Disney Feature Animation, Burbank, CA. Feb—Mar 1996
- Virtopia: Expressive Virtual Worlds. A work in progress of immersive virtual environments; opening night premier Florida Film Festival at Orlando, Enzian Theater. 1993
- Pixel/Paint: Electronic Art by J.Morie & Paintings by S. Fowler, Two-person invitational, Santa Fe Community College, Gainesville, FL, 1991
- SIGGRAPH ‘89 Art Show, Computer Art in Context Boston, MA
SIGGRAPH ‘88 Exhibition of Computer Art, Atlanta, GA - SIGGRAPH ‘87 Art Show, Anaheim, CA
- New American Photographs. invitational, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA 1986
- More Than Dreams, One-person show. Department of Architecture, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 1985
Selected Publications (* indicates a book chapter)
Morie, J. F., and McCallum, K. Eds. (2020) Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts of Immersive Technologies, IGI Publishers.
Morie, J. F. (2018). Considerations on creativity and technology in the twenty-first century. Virtual Creativity, 8(1), 3-6.
Ott, T., Wu, P., Morie, J., Wall, P., Ladwig, J., Chance, E., ... & Binsted, K. (2016, July). ANSIBLE: A Virtual World Ecosystem for Improving Psycho-Social Well-being. In International Conference on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (pp. 532-543). Springer International Publishing.
Wu, P., Morie, J., Wall, P., Ott, T., & Binsted, K. (2016). ANSIBLE: Virtual Reality for Behavioral Health. Procedia Engineering, 159, 108-111.
*Lauria, R. and Morie, J. F. (2015) Virtuality: VR as metamedia and herald of our future realities. Communication and Technology, Series: Handbooks of Communication Science [HoCS], 5, 141-160.
* Morie, J. F. (2014) Avatar as Prima Facie Non-Verbal Communication. Chapter for the book: Nonverbal Communication in Virtual Worlds, Joshua Tanenbaum, Magy Seif el-Nasr, and Michael Nixon (eds). ETC Publisher.
Morie, J. F. and Chance, E. (2013) The eHealth Arena and Online Virtual Worlds: A New Paradigm for Internet Delivered Health Care. International Journal of Games and Computer, special issue on Ludica Media. 5(3). IGI Global Publishers.
Morie, J. F., Chance, E., Haynes, E., and Purohit, D. (2012) Virtual Worlds and Avatars as the New Frontier of Telehealth Care. CyberTherapy 17 Conference, Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 25-28, 2012
Morie, J. F., Verhulnsdonck, G., Kauria, R. M. and Keeton, K. E. (2011). Operational Assessment Recommendations: Current Potential and Advanced Research Directions for Virtual Worlds as Long-Duration Space Flight Countermeasures. NASA Technical Report NSAS/TP-2011-216164.
Morie, J. F., Haynes, E., and Chance, E. (2011) Warriors' Journey: A Path to Healing through Narrative Exploration. International Journal on Disability and Human Development 2011. 10 (1).
* Morie, J. F. (2011) The Healing Potential of Online Virtual Worlds. In Systems in Health Care using Agents and Virtual Reality. Advanced Computational Intelligence Paradigms in Healthcare 6: Virtual Reality in Psychotherapy, Rehabilitation, and Assessment. Series: Studies in Computational Intelligence, S. Brahnam, L.C. Jain, (Eds.) Springer-Verlag, Berlin: 149-166.
Morie, J. F. (2008) The Performance of the Self and Its Effect on Presence in Virtual Worlds. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Presence, Padua, Italy: 265-269.
Morie, J.F. & Pearce, C. (2008). “Uses of Digital Enchantment: Computer Games as the New Fairy Tales.” In Proceedings Future and Reality of Gaming (FROG), October 17-19, Vienna, Austria.
*Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2008). “Getting Girls Into the Game: Towards a Virtuous Cycle.” In Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat. Yasmin Kafai, Carrie Heeter, Jill Denner and Jen Sun (eds). Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Morie, J. F., and Verhulsdonck, G. (2008). Body/persona/action!: emerging non-anthropomorphic communication and interaction in virtual worlds. Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology 2008: 365-372
Morie, J. F. (2008) Ontological Implications of Being in Immersive Environments. Proceedings of SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering Vol. XXXX (January 2008).
*Morie, J. F., Tortell, R., & Williams, J. (2008). Would You Like to Play a Game? Experience and Expectation in Game-Based Learning Environments. In H. F. O'Neil, & R. S. Perez (Eds.), Computer Games and Team and Individual Learning (pp. 269-286). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
All These Worlds, LLC. 2011-present. Solutions-based and consulting company for immersive technology. Clients include NASA’s Human Research Program, Smart Information Flow Technologies, USC ICT, Texas A&M and others.
Otis College of Art and Design, Digital Media Instructor, 2019-present
XPRIZE Foundation-PRIZE Operations, Senior Technical Advisor 2018-present
Virtual World Society, Board of Directors 2016-present
Upload, Inc. VP of Education. 2017-18.
The Augmented Traveler. Founder and CTO. 2013-17.
University of Southern California. USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, Senior Research Scientist, May 2000 – June 2013.
Rhythm & Hues, Head of Education, 1998-99
VIFX, Technical Education Director, 1997-98
Walt Disney Feature Animation, Head of Computer Animation Training 1994-97.
University of Central Florida, Institute for Simulation and Training. VR Researcher. 1989-1994.