Simon Richir

Simon Richir (born 1964 in Amiens) is a French engineer and academic specializing in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). He is a professor at Arts et Métiers, head of the "Presence & Innovation" research team at the LAMPA laboratory (Laboratoire Arts et Métiers ParisTech d'Angers, EA1427, HESAM Université), and the co-founder and scientific director of Laval Virtual, an international conference and trade fair on VR and AR technologies held annually in Laval, France, since 1999.

Early life and education Richir was born in 1964 in Amiens. He graduated as an engineer from Arts et Métiers ParisTech (Lille campus, class of 1984) in 1987. He went on to earn a doctorate from the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers (ENSAM) in 1994, with a thesis on new product design in the toy industry, supervised by R. Duchamp.

Career In 1995, Richir became a senior lecturer (maître de conférences) at the University of Angers, where he led the innovation department of the engineering school ISTIA (Polytech Angers). The event grew from a national gathering into an internationally recognized conference on immersive technologies, and Richir has served as its scientific director since its creation.

In 2005, he became a full professor (professeur des universités) within Arts et Métiers and founded and directed the Arts et Métiers Institute of Laval, along with the "Presence & Innovation" research laboratory. In 2006, he created a research master's degree in the management of interactive 3D technologies.

He is also editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Virtual Reality (IJVR) and has written a regular column on virtual reality for the French engineering reference publisher Techniques de l'Ingénieur.

Research Richir's research and teaching focus on the practical uses of immersive technologies, technological innovation, product/process/service design methodologies, ideation, and management. He heads the "Presence & Innovation" research team at LAMPA and holds an industrial research chair, "Time to Concept – iPerform". He is credited as co-author of more than 200 academic publications. In 2020, local press reported on his support for a project to establish an alternative school near Laval, based on the Sudbury school model.