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Draft:Stacy C. Marsella

  • Comment: Sources authored by Marsella herself are primary sources, and do not contribute to notability. Devonian Wombat (talk) 06:15, 20 May 2026 (UTC)
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Stacy C. Marsella
Alma materHarvard University (BA)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MS)
Rutgers University (PhD)
Known forComputational models of emotion, intelligent virtual agents, EMA appraisal model
AwardsACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award (2010)
Scientific career
FieldsArtificial intelligence, affective computing, intelligent virtual agents, cognitive science
InstitutionsNortheastern University
University of Glasgow
University of Southern California
Websitestacymarsella.org

Stacy C. Marsella is an American computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher who is a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology.[1] He also holds a position at the University of Glasgow in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience.[2] His research focuses on computational models of human emotion, cognition, and social behaviour, and their incorporation into intelligent virtual agents.[1]

In 2010, Marsella and Jonathan Gratch jointly received the ACM /SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award for "significant and sustained contributions to autonomous agents and multiagent systems in the area of virtual agents, in particular in emotion modeling and social simulation."[3]

Education

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Marsella received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard University in 1978, his Master of Science in computer science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1984, and his PhD in computer science from Rutgers University in 1993.[4]

Career

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From 1997 to 2014, Marsella worked at the University of Southern California. He was a computer scientist and project leader at the Information Sciences Institute (1997–2008), held appointments as research assistant professor (2004–2007) and research associate professor in USC's Department of Computer Science, and had a courtesy appointment in the Department of Psychology. In 2008, he moved to USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, where he served as project leader (2008–2009), associate director of research (2009–2013), and director of research (2013–2014).[4]

In 2014, Marsella joined Northeastern University as a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences with a joint appointment in psychology.[4][1] He also holds a position at the University of Glasgow.[2]

Research

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Computational models of emotion

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Marsella is known for developing computational models of human emotion based on appraisal theory. With Jonathan Gratch, he developed the EMA (EMotion and Adaptation) model, a process model of cognitive appraisal that simulates how emotions arise from an individual's assessment of events relative to their goals and beliefs. The EMA model has been widely cited and applied in virtual agent systems.[5] They also developed a domain-independent framework for modelling emotion in autonomous agents.[6] Their work on computational emotion modelling was featured in Communications of the ACM.[7]

Virtual humans and military training

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At USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, Marsella contributed to the development of virtual human technologies for military training and simulation, including the Mission Rehearsal Exercise system, which used virtual humans in immersive training scenarios for U.S. Army soldiers.[4][8]

Emotion and autonomous machines

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Marsella co-authored a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrating that people program autonomous machines to behave more cooperatively than they would themselves in social dilemmas, a finding with implications for the deployment of autonomous vehicles and military robots. The study was covered by the U.S. Army and Military Embedded Systems.[9][10]

Facial expressions and emotion recognition

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Marsella co-authored a major review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest challenging the assumption that emotions can be reliably inferred from facial movements, arguing that context plays a critical role in emotion perception.[11][12][13][14]

Professional service

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Marsella served as General Chair of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) and as Chair of the International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA).[1] He is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, a board member of the International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS), and a member of the steering committee for the IVA conference.[1] He is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.[1]

Honours and awards

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  • ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award (2010, jointly with Jonathan Gratch), "for significant and sustained contributions to autonomous agents and multiagent systems in the area of virtual agents"[3]
  • Best Innovative System/Application Paper Award, AAMAS (2003, with Jonathan Gratch)[3]
  • Fellow, Society of Experimental Social Psychology[1]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Stacy C. Marsella". Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University. 23 February 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  2. 1 2 "Stacy Marsella". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  3. 1 2 3 "Jonathan Gratch and Stacy Marsella (2010 Autonomous Agents Research Award)". ACM SIGAI. 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Curriculum Vitae: Stacy C. Marsella" (PDF). Northeastern University College of Science. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  5. ↑ Marsella, Stacy C.; Gratch, Jonathan (2009). "EMA: A process model of appraisal dynamics". Cognitive Systems Research. 10 (1): 70–90. doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2008.03.006.
  6. ↑ Gratch, Jonathan; Marsella, Stacy (2004). "A domain-independent framework for modeling emotion". Cognitive Systems Research. 5 (4): 269–306. doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2004.02.002.
  7. ↑ Marsella, Stacy; Gratch, Jonathan (2014). "Computationally modeling human emotion". Communications of the ACM. 57 (12): 56–67. doi:10.1145/2631912.
  8. ↑ Rickel, Jeff; Marsella, Stacy; Gratch, Jonathan; Hill, Randall; Traum, David; Swartout, William (2002). "Toward a New Generation of Virtual Humans for Interactive Experiences". IEEE Intelligent Systems. 17 (4): 32–38. Bibcode:2002IISys..17d..32R. doi:10.1109/MIS.2002.1024750.
  9. ↑ de Melo, Celso M.; Marsella, Stacy; Gratch, Jonathan (2019). "Human Cooperation When Acting Through Autonomous Machines". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (9): 3482–3487. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.3482D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1817656116. PMC 6397531. PMID 30808742.
  10. ↑ "Pre-programming autonomous machines promotes selfless decision-making". United States Army. 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  11. ↑ Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Adolphs, Ralph; Marsella, Stacy; Martinez, Aleix M.; Pollak, Seth D. (2019). "Emotional Expressions Reconsidered: Challenges to Inferring Emotion From Human Facial Movements". Psychological Science in the Public Interest. 20 (1): 1–68. doi:10.1177/1529100619832930. PMC 6640856. PMID 31313636.
  12. ↑ page, Angela Chenarchive. "Computers can't tell if you're happy when you smile". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2026-05-24.
  13. ↑ Telford, Taylor (2019-07-31). "'Emotion detection' AI is a $20 billion industry. New research says it can't do what it claims". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-05-24.
  14. ↑ "Emotion-detection applications built on outdated science, report warns". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2026-05-24.
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