Elizabeth D. Mynatt is the GVU Center Director, past HCC Ph.D. Program Faculty Coordinator, and an Associate Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There, she directs the research program in Everyday Computing — examining the human-computer interface implications of having computation continuously present in many aspects of everyday life. Themes in her research include supporting informal collaboration and awareness in office environments, enabling creative work and visual communication, and augmenting social processes for managing personal information. Dr. Mynatt is one of the principal researchers in the Aware Home Research Initiative; investigating the design of future home technologies, especially those that enable older adults to continue living independently as opposed to moving to an institutional care setting.
Dr. Mynatt is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of ubiquitous computing and assistive technologies. Prior to her current position, she worked for three years at Xerox PARC — the birthplace of ubiquitous computing — alongside its inventor, Mark Weiser. Her research explored how to augment everyday places and objects with computational capabilities. She has chaired multiple conferences on computer interface technologies and auditory displays, published numerous articles, and is an active leader in her field.
Dr. Mynatt is a Sloan Research Fellow. Her research is supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation including a five-year NSF CAREER award. Other honorary awards include the 2001 College of Computing's Junior Faculty Research award and the 2003 College of Computing's Dean's Award. Dr. Mynatt received her Ph.D. in computer science at Georgia Tech under the guidance of Dr. James Foley. Her dissertation work pioneered creating nonspeech auditory interfaces from graphical interfaces to enable blind computer users to work with modern computer applications. Her M.S and undergraduate degrees in computer science were granted from Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University respectively. A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Dr. Mynatt resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children.
