Rate My Professor Max Louwerse

Max Louwerse is Professor by Special Appointment at Maastricht University, within the Faculty of Science and Engineering and as principal investigator at the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society (BISS). Concurrently, he holds the position of Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University, where he also serves as Founder and Scientific Director of the DAF Technology Lab, a facility featuring immersive virtual and mixed reality environments with CAVE systems. Louwerse obtained his PhD in computational and psycholinguistics from the University of Edinburgh. Before returning to Europe, he spent 18 years in academic roles in the United Kingdom and the United States, achieving early tenure and promotion to Full Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis, where he directed the institute. His career includes co-founding the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science and MindLabs, and involvement in major funded projects such as MasterMinds, VIBE (€7 million for animated conversational agents in healthcare), and Campione (€12 million for virtual reality training).

Louwerse's research focuses on cognitive science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, virtual and augmented reality, non-verbal communication, educational psychology, and embodied conversational agents. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles, including influential works like 'Coh-Metrix: Analysis of text on cohesion and language' (2004, with A.C. Graesser et al.), 'AutoTutor: A tutor with dialogue in natural language' (2004, with A.C. Graesser et al.), 'A linguistic analysis of simplified and authentic texts' (2007, with S.A. Crossley et al.), and recent publications such as 'Face to face: The eyes as an anchor in multimodal communication' (2025, with D. Cano Porras) and 'Effect of a Virtual Agent's Appearance and Voice on Uncanny Valley and Trust in Human-Agent Collaboration' (2024). He has written two popular science books: Keeping Those Words in Mind: How Language Creates Meaning and Understanding Artificial Minds Through Human Minds: The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence. Holding two patents, Louwerse has secured nearly €50 million in research grants from bodies including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. His honors include the BeNeDrone Interreg prize (2025-2028, with G. van Dijck). He has served as associate editor of Cognitive Science, sits on multiple editorial boards, contributes to the Learning and Education track of the Dutch Digital Society agenda, and participates in steering committees for smart industry and air force initiatives. Louwerse is a frequent public speaker and blogger for Psychology Today, bridging academic research with societal and industrial applications through initiatives like SpaceBuzz for educational technologies.