Marcia O’Malley

Marcia O’Malley received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1996, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1999 and 2001, respectively. She is currently the Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and directs the Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Lab. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at both Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Additionally, she is a co-founder of Houston Medical Robotics, Inc. Her research addresses issues that arise when humans physically interact with robotic systems, with a focus on training and rehabilitation in virtual environments. She has twice received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University. O’Malley received the ONR Young Investigator award and was also a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. She is a Fellow of both the ASME and the IEEE. She currently serves as Associate Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Haptics and Senior Associate Editor for the ACM Transactions on Human Robot Interaction. Additionally, she is a senior associate editor for the ACM Transactions on Human Robot Interaction.