People

Bernard Frischer is the founder/Director Emeritus of the Virtual World Heritage Lab (VWHL) and Professor Emeritus of Informatics at Indiana University. He is a digital archaeologist who writes about virtual heritage, Classics, and the survival of the Classical world. He received his B.A. in Classics from Wesleyan University (CT) in 1971 and his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Heidelberg in 1975. From 1974 to 1976, he had a two-year Prix de Rome fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, where he studied Roman topography and archaeology, worked in the Fototeca Unione as a photographer and topographer and served two summers as assistant professor in the Academy's summer program on Roman topography. He taught Classics at UCLA from 1976 until 2004. He served as director of Humanities Computing at UCLA from 1987-88 and founded the Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory in 1996. In the fall of 2004, he moved to the University of Virginia, where he continued the work of his old UCLA lab under the new name of "Virtual World Heritage Laboratory" and was also Professor of Art History and Classics. In 2013, he joined the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University (what would become the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering), bringing the VWHL with him. At Indiana, he also founded the Virtual Heritage Informatics doctoral program—a track of the Ph.D. in Informatics at IU-Bloomington. Virtual Heritage is a developing field studying ways of applying the new 3D technologies to research and instruction in fields such as anthropology, art and architectural history, and conservation science; this doctoral program is a unique example in North America.

Umair Malik is an interdisciplinary researcher experienced in blending tools, methodologies, and theories from different disciplines. He has successfully conducted human-centered research in the past and has a strong background in 3D digitization techniques and their applications in design, mechanical engineering, architecture, museums, and archeology.  He received his M.S. degree in Design and Engineering in 2016 and an interdepartmental Ph.D. in Design for Cultural Heritage in 2022 from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In his Ph.D. dissertation, he analyzed the theoretical implications of using 3D technologies in the field of cultural heritage. The result of this research was a framework of guidelines for verifying the effectiveness of 3D applications with virtual models in museum exhibitions and research. During and after his Ph.D., he participated in several digital heritage research projects at the Italian, European, and International levels. He is also trained in the ethics of developing, designing, managing, and controlling digital technologies for museums and cultural heritage institutions. 

Kacie Alaga is a Ph.D. student in Virtual Heritage Informatics. Her background is in architectural history and Mediterranean archaeology, with a focus on cross-cultural exchange in imperial Roman architecture of North Africa and the Levant. Her research interests lie in the application of digital technologies to the documentation and preservation of cultural heritage sites and monuments.

Matt Brennan is a doctoral student in Virtual Heritage Informatics at Indiana University. He is an archaeologist, art historian, and designer with a B.S. from the University of Virginia in Architectural Design and Architectural History. He has conducted archaeological fieldwork at Cosa and Pompeii. He has also created interactive educational Virtual Reality applications. The winner of the American Academy's Booth Family Rome Prize in Conservation in 2019, Matt is currently working on his dissertation on 3D digitization of the South Theater at Hadrian’s Villa and its digital preservation.

Quinn Comprosky is a doctoral student in Virtual Heritage Informatics at Indiana  University Bloomington. He received an undergraduate degree in Geographic Information Systems and Archaeology at DePaul University in 2022. He has participated in archaeological fieldwork in both the Pullman neighborhood in Chicago and the Eastern Black Desert of Jordan. His research interests include Landscape Archaeology, Archaeogaming, the Accessibility of museums, and how individuals navigate museum-like spaces.

Nick Plank is a Ph.D. student in Virtual Heritage Informatics at Indiana University. He studied classical archaeology at the University of Virginia before receiving an MS in Informatics from Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on the history and epistemology of digital 3D models in cultural heritage fields, with particular emphasis on classical archaeology, art history, and museum studies. Recent research includes studies on the applications of digital 3D modeling in archaeological excavations, 3D data curation, incorporating XRF and other sensor data into 3D models, extended experientiality in museum spaces through virtual reality, and photogrammetric landscape analyses. His dissertation addresses the evolution of collecting and three-dimensional presentation in the Uffizi collections, focusing on the Tribuna, and how emergent digital technologies can improve access to and understanding of relevant cultural heritage objects through the use of virtual tools and spaces.