Laura Malinin

Colorado State University

Dr. Malinin (AIA, EDAC, LEEP AP, WELL AP) is Inaugural Director of the Nancy Richardson Design Center in the College of Health and Human Sciences and Associate Professor of Interior Architecture and Design at Colorado State University. The Design Center is an academic incubator building open to all students, faculty, and staff that offers spaces and resources to support interdisciplinary collaboration, creativity, and innovation - including fabrication labs, workshops, and coursework in design thinking and cutting edge technologies. A licensed architect and cognitive scientist, she studies how designed environments affect cognitive, behavioral and social processes influencing human creativity, decision-making, health and wellbeing. Her research is centered around the concept of psychospatial dynamics — the intertwined (bi-directional) process of thinking and doing — and how understanding emerges from interactions in/with physical environments. Recent publications include topics in design-thinking and creativity theory; psychospatial dynamics in workplace, learning space and healthcare settings; and benefits/challenges of virtual/augmented reality in research and teaching.