Introducing AWE’s XR Hall of Fame!
Recognizing the Pioneers Who Built the AR and VR Industry
Nominate a Pioneer for The XR Hall of Fame (for Future Years)
Ivan Sutherland
Developed the First Head Mounted Display
Tom Furness
“The Grandfather of VR”
.png)
Myron W. Krueger
Godfather of Artificial Reality, an Unencumbered Virtual Reality
Jaron Lanier
"Father of VR"
Mary Whitton
Co-Lead, UNC Effective Virtual Environments Research Group
Henry Fuchs
Head Mounted Display and Medical Imaging Pioneer
Valerie Thomas
Inventor of NASA's Illusion Transmitter for 3D Holography
Steve Mann
AR Glasses Pioneer and "Father of Wearable Computing"
Bob Stone
XR Pioneer since 1987, Human Factors, Industrial, Defence and Medical XR, Haptics
Jacquelyn (Jacki) Morie
VR Innovator Blending Art, Science, and Education
Mark Bolas
Co-Founder of Fakespace, USC Professor and Palmer Luckey’s Mentor
Diane Gromala
Innovator Using VR to Treat Chronic Pain
Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss
Two of the First VR Artists, Creators of “Home of the Brain”
Marc Regis Hannah
Co-Founder of Silicon Graphics & CGI Veteran
Stephen Ellis
Headed the Advanced Displays and Spatial Perception Laboratory at NASA Ames
Vernor Vinge
Author of Rainbows End and True Names, Seminal Sci-Fi Novels About AR & VR
Bruce Sterling
Cyberpunk Trailblazer and the “Prophet” of AR
Jordan Weisman
Creator of the First Networked VR Gaming Centers
Ann Lasko-Harvill
Chief Designer of Data Suits at VPL Research
Jannick Rolland
Optical See-through HMD Pioneer
Brenda Laurel
Visionary in Narrative-Driven and Inclusive Gaming and VR Experiences
Thomas Caudell
Coined the Term “Augmented Reality” at Boeing in 1990
Carolina Cruz-Neira
Co-Inventor of CAVE
Jonathan Waldern
Developed the First Production VR Workstations at Virtuality, DigiLens Founder
Neal Stephenson
Visionary Author, Coined the Term “Metaverse” in Snow Crash
Joanna Alexander
VR Headset Designer for Hasbro at the Sarnoff Research Center
Lanny Smoot
Disney Imagineer and Creator of the HoloTile Floor
Char Davies
Pioneered New Forms of Visual Imagery and Interaction
Tim Sweeney
Epic Games CEO and Founder, Creator of Fortnite
Avi Bar-Zeev
Pioneer of Spatial Computing for Disney, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple
Stan Honey
Inventor of Football’s ‘Yellow Line’ and AR Sports Visualization Pioneer
Louis Rosenberg
Haptics Pioneer, MR Pioneer, VR & AI Consumer Advocate
John Carmack
Original Oculus VR CTO
Evelyn Miralles
VR/XR Pioneer at NASA’s Virtual Reality Laboratory and Xploration LLC Founder & CEO
Steven Feiner
Creator of “The Touring Machine” – the First Mobile Outdoor AR System
Bruce Thomas
Creator of ARQuake - the First Outdoor AR Game
Hirokazu Kato
Creator of ARtoolworks
Mark Billinghurst
AR Pioneer in Remote Collaboration and Empathic Computing
Ralph Osterhout
Creator of the First Fully Functional Standalone AR Glasses at ODG
Paul Travers
Created the First Commercial Augmented Reality Headset at Vuzix
Blair MacIntyre
Pioneer of Mobile AR Games and Entertainment, WebAR
Tony Parisi
VRML and glTF Co-Creator, WebGL and WebVR Pioneer
Bruno Uzzan
CEO and Founder of Total Immersion - the World’s First AR Software Company
Shelley Peterson
Chief XR Engineer at Lockheed Martin for 20 Years
Alvin Wang Graylin
XR Leader at HTC VIVE
Thad Starner
Technical Lead on Google Project Glass and Wearable Computing Pioneer
John Gaeta
Oscar Winner for The Matrix ‘Bullet Time’ VFX Inventor, ILMxLAB, HoloCinema Pioneer
Nonny de la Peña
VR Pioneer, Coined the Term “Immersive Journalism”
Yaakov Amitai
Waveguides Technologies Pioneer and Lumus Founder
Jeremy Bailenson
Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford and Strivr Founder
Philip Rosedale
Second Life Founder
Elizabeth Baron
VR Innovator of Realistic Immersive Digital Twins for Automotive
Thomas Alt and Peter Meier
Founders of Metaio - One of the First AR Startups
Nassir Navab
AR for Healthcare Pioneer
Daniel Wagner
Developer of the First Mobile AR Tracking on PDAs
Sean White
Inflection AI CEO, WebXR Pioneer, Situated Visualization Inventor
Tamir Berliner
PrimeSense Co-Founder, Sightful Founder, MagicLeap IL Leader
David Baszucki
Roblox CEO and Founder
Georg Klein
First SLAM on iPhone, HoloLens Platform Developer
John Hanke
Niantic CEO and Founder, Introduced Pokémon Go
Christine Perey
Enterprise XR Expert, AR Standards Advocate, Founder of The AREA
Helen Papagiannis
Pioneering AR Designer, Artist, Author and Speaker
Jeri Ellsworth
AR Glasses Pioneer, Tilt Five Founder and CEO
Gabe Newell
Valve CEO and Founder
Neil Trevett
Open Standards Advocate, Metaverse Standards Forum President
Babak Parviz
Google Glass Pioneer
Marco Tempest
AR Illusionist and Virtual Magician
Tish Shute
AI/AR/VR Pioneer, AWE Co-Founder
Philipp Breuss-Schneeweis
Creator of the First AR Browser at Wikitude
Jay Wright
Vuforia Founder at Qualcomm, Campfire Founder
Jesse Schell
VR Game Designer, Schell Games Founder and CEO
Takahito Iguchi
Tonchidot Founder and CEO - Creator of the First World Camera App
Nicole Lazzaro
XR Design Language and Spatial Audio Innovator
Rony Abovitz
Magic Leap Founder
.png)
Shari Frilot
Visionary Curator of XR Experiences at Sundance Film Festival
Matt Miesnieks
AR Leader at Samsung, Layar, Dekko, 6D.ai, and Super Ventures
Brian Mullins
DAQRI Founder - One of the First AR for Enterprise Solutions
Jeff Powers
Occipital Founder, First 3D Sensor Accessory for AR
Brian Ballard
Upskill Founder & CEO - One of the First AR for Enterprise Solutions Providers
Scott Montgomerie
ScopeAR Founder & CEO - One of the First AR for Enterprise Solutions
Hendrik Witt
Ubimax Founder and CEO - First AR for Warehouse Management
Palmer Luckey
Oculus Founder – Kickstarted the Modern VR Era
Evan Spiegel
Snap CEO and Founder, First AR Messaging App
Keiichi Matsuda
Designer and Director, Creator of the Film HYPER-REALITY
Ashley Crowder
Creator of the First Scalable & Interactive Hologram System
Chris Milk
Immersive Artist, VR Storyteller, Within Founder
SUTU (Stuart Campbell)
Visionary AR/VR Artist and Eyejack Founder
Eric Romo
AltspaceVR Founder - Among the First VR for Live Events Platforms
Caspar Thykier
Zappar Founder and CEO - AR Marketing Campaigns Trailblazer
Tom Emrich
Top AR Advocate, Product Leader at 8th Wall/Niantic, Investor at Super Ventures
Curtis Hickman
Co-Founder of The VOID and Location-Based VR Innovator
Ján Ilavský, Vladimír Hrinčár and Peter Hrinčár
Beat Saber Creators - First VR Game With $1B Revenue
Tamiko Thiel
Lead Product Designer on the Connection Machine and VR/AR Artist
Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey
VRChat Creators - Top Social VR Platform
Christina Heller
XR Production Pioneer and Founding CEO of Metastage
Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël
Emmy-Winning VR Creators, Felix & Paul Studios
Timoni West
XR Leader at Unity, Wētā Tools, Meta
Christina Lee Storm
Emerging Media Leader for Netflix, DreamWorks Animation, and Television Academy
Joanna Popper
Award-Winning Executive, Innovator, Storyteller and Producer
Lady PheØnix
Creator of Breonna's Garden, Metaverse Art Curator
Mike Rockwell
Leader of Apple Vision Products
