Nadia Magnenat Thalmann
Director
Institute for Media Innovation

Professor Thalmann joined NTU in August 2009 as the Director of the interdisciplinary Institute for Media Innovation. She has authored dozens of books, published more than 600 papers on virtual humans/virtual worlds and social robots (jointly with her PhD students), organised major conferences as CGI, CASA, and delivered more than 300 keynote addresses, some of them at global events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos.

During her illustrious career, she also established MIRALab in Switzerland, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary multimedia research institute. She participated in more than 50 European research projects, helping MIRALab to develop revolutionising interdisciplinary research in computer graphics, computer animation, and virtual worlds and producing impactful work that synergises art, fashion, computer graphics. Her work is regularly displayed at museums, galleries and fashion shows. Her most recent work includes the 3D virtual patient, including a case study on visualizing the articulations of ballerinas while dancing or soccer players.

In NTU, Singapore, recently, she revolutionized social robotics by unveiling the first social robot Nadine that can have mood and emotions and remember people and actions.

Besides having bachelor’s and master’s degrees in disciplines such as psychology, biology, chemistry and computer science, Professor Thalmann completed her PhD in quantum physics at the University of Geneva. She has received honorary doctorates from Leibniz University of Hannover and the University of Ottawa in Canada and several prestigious other awards as the Humboldt Research Award in Germany.

She is Editor-in-Chief of The Visual Computer, co-Editor-in-Chief of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, and editor of many other scientific journals. She is a life member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Research Statement

Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann’s interests are mainly on Virtual humans, both on the creative and the algorithmic side. One recent interest is to model the physiological Virtual Human, including specific individual modelling of organs.

Among recent topics of interests :

  • Interactive Autonomous Virtual Humans and Social Robots
  • Modelling personalities, emotions, memory processes and relationship models
  • Physics-based modelling of deformations of soft tissue
  • Segmentation methods for MRI data
  • 3D Fabrication
Publications
  • Li Tian ; Jing Liu ; Nadia Magnenat Thalmann ; Daniel Thalmann ; Jianmin Zheng. (2020). Design of a Flexible Articulated Robotic Hand for a Humanoid Robot. 2019 IEEE-RAS 19th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids)IEEE.
  • Li Tian ; Nadia Magnenat Thalmann ; Jianmin Zheng ; Daniel Thalmann. (2020). Design of a Highly Biomimetic and Fully-Actuated Robotic Finger. 2019 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI)IEEE.
  • Nidhi Mishra, Manoj Ramanathan, Ranjan Satapathy, Erik Cambria, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann. (2020). Can a Humanoid Robot be part of the Organizational Workforce? A User Study Leveraging Sentiment Analysis. 2019 28th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN).
  • Li Tian, Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, Daniel Thalmann, Zhiwen Fang and Jianmin Zheng. (2019). Object Grasping of Humanoid Robot Based on YOLO. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 11542, 476-482.
  • Manoj Ramanathan, Nidhi Mishra, and Nadia Magnenat Thalmann. (2019). Nadine Humanoid Social Robotics Platform. Computer Graphics International 2019.
Latest Projects
  • 3D Interactive Visualization of the Human Body In An Immersive Situation
  • Advanced Immersive Medical Environments Project (AI-MEP)
  • Autonomous Virtual Humans and Social Robot For Telepresence
  • BeingTogether
  • Realistic Immersion with Virtual Humans
  • Towards More Social Robots: Understanding Human Behaviours with 2D and 3D Sensors
Other affiliation(s)

Adjunct Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering

Expertise
Computer Science, Robotics & Mechatronics, Social robots

Research Interests

Research Category
Arts, Design and Media, Computer Science and Engineering, Interactive Digital Media
Potential NISTH Challenge Statements
Advancing inclusive living and ageing, Smart nation, Urban planning and human centered design
Related NTU2025 Research Clusters
Artificial & Augmented Intelligence
Related RIE2025 Domains
Manufacturing, Trade and Connectivity (MTC)
Related Humanity Grand Challenges
Addressing technology’s impact on humanity
Affiliated Sustainable Development Goals
GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION – Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.
GOAL 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH – Sustainable economic growth will require societies to create the conditions that allow people to have quality jobs.
GOAL 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE – Investments in infrastructure are crucial to achieving sustainable development.
GOAL 17: PARTNERSHIPS – Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
Last Updated
17 Apr 2020
Last Updated
06 Jan 2023