Gord McCalla has nearly 40 years of experience in artificial intelligence research. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. His interests are in artificial intelligence in education (AIED), user modelling and personalization (UMAP), and related fields such as learner modelling, educational data mining, tutorial dialogue, and distributed AIED systems. To get an idea of his recent perspectives check out three papers: one on the fragmentation of culture and learning technology (IJAIED, 2000); one promoting the notion of "active" learner modelling, done just in time according to social and technical context (JUMUAl, 2001); and one on the "ecological approach" a data mining-based approach to e-learning (JIME, 2004). He has worked on systems to support the learning of programming, including the G.E.N.I.U.S. system, various systems under the rubric of the SCENT project, and the PETAL system. He has also experimentally investigated basic issues in student modelling, instructional planning, and tutorial dialogue. He is currently working on systems that support peer collaboration in workplace and post-secondary training environments, a robust cliche-based reverse engineering tool, an AI-based second language learning immersion environment in travel domains, an intelligent filtering/retrieval system, an ethics simulation environment, and a personal preference system in the movie domain. Much of this work is characterized by the goal of capturing relevant user information and using it to individualize the system's interaction with each of its users.