It’s a Wrap – 2 Successful Dissertation Defenses in November

On Tuesday, 11 November 2025, Henrietta Batinovic successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled “Making People Stay on Immersive Platforms: Designing Virtual Influencers to Enable Unique Brand Experiences and Enhance Immersive Time” at the University of Göttingen.
In her research, she examines how the strategic design of virtual influencers can motivate users to spend more time in virtual environments by fostering a sense of spatial closeness and co-creating brand-related experiences.
On Monday, 24 November 2025, Leah Lennig successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled “Unlocking Creativity in the Age of Remote Work—Designing for Impactful Virtual Reality Meetings.”
In her research, Leah investigates how characteristics of virtual meetings influence employee creativity—an issue that has gained considerable relevance with the rise of digital collaboration.
With these two successful defenses, all internal research staff members of our department have completed their doctorates this year—four completed PhDs in total.
We warmly congratulate both of them on their achievement
