Daniel Pillis is a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, a specialist in performance capture, mixed reality, and interactive computer graphics. While working with the Tangible Media Group under Dr. Hiroshi Ishii, Pillis is focused on exploring telepresence in the past through projects focusing on TeleAbsence, remote time, and collaborative mixed reality.

An active member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion committee, Pillis is dedicated to ensuring that research and community is accessible, equitable and engaging to all. Pillis holds an MFA focusing on Virtual Reality and Immersive Environments from Carnegie Mellon University, where he worked with the father of computer graphics, Ivan E. Sutherland. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Pillis was a researcher in residence in the soft robotics laboratory of Dr. Christopher Atkeson in the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, and taught courses in art and engineering at Virginia Tech and Princeton University.