Tamara Macushla Munzner (born 1969) is an American-Canadian scientist. She is an expert in

information visualization Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...

who works as a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

(UBC).

Early life

Tamara Macushla Munzner was born in 1969 in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. She is the daughter of abstract painter Aribert Munzner. She graduated from South High School in 1986. She earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in computer science from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1991. She returned to Stanford for her graduate studies, completing her Ph.D. in 2000 under the supervision of

Pat Hanrahan Patrick M. Hanrahan (born 1954) is an American computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algo ...

. Her thesis, ''Interactive Visualization of Large Graphs and Networks'', involved using

hyperbolic geometry In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or Bolyai– Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with: :For any given line ''R'' and point ''P'' ...

to visualize large graphs.

Career

Munzner worked as an intern at

ETA Systems Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

in the 1980s while still in college. Munzner then worked at

The Geometry Center The Geometry Center was a mathematics research and education center at the University of Minnesota. It was established by the National Science Foundation in the late 1980s and closed in 1998. The focus of the center's work was the use of computer ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

from 1991 to 1995. There, she helped produce two

mathematical visualization Mathematical phenomena can be understood and explored via visualization. Classically this consisted of two-dimensional drawings or building three-dimensional models (particularly plaster models in the 19th and early 20th century), while today it ...

videos, one about turning spheres inside-out and another about the different topological structures that a three-dimensional universe could have. She interned at

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

and

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

. After receiving her Ph.D., she became a research scientist at the Compaq Systems Research Center in 2000, before joining the

faculty as an assistant professor of computer science in the summer of 2002. Munzner is the author of the book ''Visualization Analysis and Design'' (CRC Press, 2014). She was program co-chair of the InfoVis conference in 2003 and 2004, and of EuroVis in 2009 and 2010. She has served as the chair of the steering committee of

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

(IEEE) InfoVis and the executive committee of IEEE Visualization.

Selected publications

* Munzner, T (2014)
Visualization Analysis and Design
CRC Press. * Munzner, T (2009)
A Nested Model for Visualization Design and Validation
IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics 15(6):921-928. * Munzner, T (2012), with Sedlmair, M.
Design Study Methodology: Reflections from the Trenches and the Stacks
IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics 18(12):2421-2440.

Recognition

In 2015, Munzner received the IEEE VGTC Visualization Technical Achievement Award "in recognition of her foundational research that has produced a scientific basis for principles and design choices for visualization". In 2019, Munzner was awarded a 10-Year Test of Time award from IEEE InfoVis. Her nested model of visualization design and validation, published in 2009, guided designers from a problem in an application domain to abstractions for the problem and data, to the design of visual encoding and interaction techniques, to efficient instantiation through algorithms. She was elected as an

IEEE Fellow As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...

, in the 2023 class of fellows, "for contributions to principles, processes, and design for visualization".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munzner, Tamara Macushla 1969 births Living people People from Minneapolis American computer scientists American women computer scientists Canadian computer scientists Canadian women computer scientists Stanford University alumni Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Information visualization experts American women academics 21st-century American women South High School (Minnesota) alumni Fellow Members of the IEEE