Dr. Charlie Hughes is Pegasus Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1970 from The Pennsylvania State University, completing a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship in 1971-72. He was a member of the faculty at Penn State and the University of Tennessee before joining UCF in 1980. His virtual environment research spans almost four decades, the last 35 years of which have been focused on virtual learning environments (co-holder of 11 patents in this area) with an emphasis on preparing teachers for inclusive classrooms and helping neurodiverse students reach their full potential. He has authored or co-authored seven books, 73 journal articles, 38 book chapters, and 123 refereed conference papers. He has advised 31 students to the successful completion of their Ph.D. in computer science and modeling & simulation. In 2020, Charlie was inducted into the National Center for Simulation Hall of Fame. He is a Life Senior Member of both the IEEE and the ACM and is an ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneer. He has been PI or co-PI on $30M USD in external grants since 2000.