At the 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Conference, the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community (VGTC) brought together the world’s brightest minds in virtual reality (VR) — and honored two UCF pioneers whose discoveries continue to shape how we experience the digital world.
Carolina Cruz-Neira, director of UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training (IST) and Agere Chair Professor of Computer Science, received the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Lifetime Achievement Award — an honor recognizing an individual’s lifetime contribution to the field.
Gregory Welch, Pegasus Professor, AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Healthcare Simulation at the College of Nursing and co-director of the Synthetic Reality Lab at IST, received the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Service Award, which celebrates outstanding dedication, support and service contributions to the virtual/augmented reality community.
Their recognition comes full circle. Cruz-Neira (2007) and Welch (2018) are both past recipients of the IEEE VGTC Technical Achievement Award, which honors seminal technical achievements in VR. In 2022, they were both inducted into the inaugural class of the VGTC VR Academy, a prestigious distinction recognizing pioneers whose work has shaped the discipline at the highest level.
UCF is among a handful of institutions with multiple recipients of the IEEE VGTC awards.
For Cruz-Neira, the Virtual Reality Lifetime Achievement Award is deeply personal.
“[This award] is dear to me because I was part of the founding team of the IEEE VR community back in 1992, when I was still in the early stages of my career — a Ph.D. student,” Cruz-Neira says. “It is especially meaningful to see that, having been there from the very beginning, the VR community recognizes [my contributions]. This honor truly belongs to the teams of students and collaborators who have worked alongside me to build and shape the field over the years. Awards like this also help sustain and elevate UCF’s excellence, strengthening its national standing and reinforcing its reputation as a preeminent university.”
For Welch, the Virtual Reality Service Award underscores his driving principle of servant leadership.
“There is so much that we can and should do to help our communities,” Welch says. “It takes people to step up, commit and invest time to make things happen. I hope my service and leadership inspire others.”
Learn more about why Cruz-Neira and Welch received honors for their significant and sustained contributions to the VR community in the following stories:
