Rate My Professor Gregor Gerling

Gregory J. Gerling is a Professor of Systems Engineering in the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science, holding courtesy appointments in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2005, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering in 2001, and a B.S. in Computer Science in 1998. Before joining the University of Virginia faculty in 2005, Gerling worked in industry at Motorola, NASA Ames Research Center, and Rockwell Collins.

Gerling's research spans haptics, computational neuroscience, biomechanics, human-machine interaction, user experience design, and human factors and ergonomics. His work particularly emphasizes cutaneous and proprioceptive cues for perceiving object softness, the neural and biomechanical foundations of social and emotional touch, and soft tissue manipulation. Employing computational modeling, statistical analysis, data science, advanced imaging, custom device prototyping, and psychophysical experimentation—often in collaboration with neuroscientists—his group advances understanding in these areas, with applications primarily in human health. Gerling has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications. Notable contributions include "Merkel cells are essential for light-touch responses" in Science (2009), "Distinction of self-produced touch and social touch at cortical and spinal cord levels" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019), "Providing a sense of touch to prosthetic hands" in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (2015), and "Computation identifies structural features that govern neuronal firing properties in slowly adapting touch receptors" in eLife (2014). Recent works feature "Strain-based biomarkers at the skin surface differentiate asymmetries in soft tissue mobility associated with myofascial pain" in Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials (2025) and "Mechanoreceptive Aβ primary afferents discriminate naturalistic social touch inputs at a functionally relevant time scale" in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing (2024).

As a Senior Member of the IEEE, Gerling has held leadership roles including Co-Chair of the IEEE Haptics Symposium (2018, 2020), Co-Editor of the IEEE World Haptics Conference (2017, 2019), Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Haptics, and Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Haptics. He has mentored over 20 Ph.D. and M.S. students, secured principal investigator roles on grants from NIH, NSF, DARPA, and other agencies, and consults on UX/UI design and evaluation in healthcare. Gerling teaches courses such as Human-Machine Interface, Human Factors, and User Experience Design.