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About

Nancy Zook is a prominent researcher specializing in human-robot interaction (HRI), robot ethics, and the social integration of robots among older adult populations. Her work has made significant contributions to understanding how emotional expression, user characteristics, and ethical considerations shape the acceptance and design of social robots. Zook's most influential contributions include a longitudinal field study examining emotional deception and attachment in older adults' interactions with social robots (94 citations) and an investigation into how human and robot characteristics influence social robot acceptance (90 citations). These studies have established her as a leading voice in the ethical deployment of companion robots for aging populations. Her 2021 work further deepened this inquiry by exploring whether artificially expressed emotions could constitute genuine ethical violations in HRI contexts. Beyond ethics, Zook has shed light on often-overlooked accessibility challenges, identifying speech-related barriers that emerged incidentally during longitudinal HRI studies — a finding with meaningful implications for inclusive robot design. Her research into affective verbal expression further interrogates where the boundaries of robot honesty lie. With over 200 cumulative citations, Zook's scholarship bridges technical robotics, gerontology, and applied ethics, offering indispensable guidance for researchers and designers building the next generation of socially responsible robots.