Congratulations to Dr. Byungho Park

This bit of congratulations is a few days late...but on Wednesday Byungho Park successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in Mass Communications. Byungho was one of the first grad students I was introduced to when I joined the faculty at IU and I have seen him grow very much as a scholar. His interest in computer games and interactive design first brought him to IU for the Masters in Immersive Media Environments (MIME) program. However, his interest soon moved more toward testing theoretica-driven predictions about how people cognitively process and emotionally respond to games. As a result, he joined the Ph.D. program.

Byungho's interest in games still continues, however. Here's the title of his dissertation:

Video Game Play and Motivation:
Variation in Appetitive and Aversive Motivational System Activation as a Function of Virtual Threat Level

Byungho has also been the ICR Manager for the past year--as such he as helped me tremendously to keep the very busy facility running smoothly. I will miss him very much in that regard and want to thank him for his work.


I also wish him well as he joins the faculty of National University in Singapore in the Communication and New Media Programme this fall.