Invited Speakers

Large-Scale Scientific Visualization

Chris Johnson
Director,
Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute University of Utah

Modern high performance computers have speeds measured in teraflops and handle data set sizes measured in terabytes and petabytes. Although these machines offer enormous potential for solving very large-scale realistic computational problems, their effectiveness will hinge upon the ability of human experts to interact with their simulation results and extract useful information. One of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century is to effectively understand and make use of the vast amount of information being produced. Visualization will be among our most most important tools in helping to understand such large-scale information.

Our research at the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute at the University of Utah has focused on innovative, scalable techniques for large-scale 3D visualization. In this talk, I will present state-of-the-art visualization techniques, including scalable visualization algorithms and software, cluster-based visualization methods and innovate visualization techniques applied to problems in computational science, engineering, and medicine. I will conclude with an outline for a future high performance visualization research challenges and opportunities.

Biography

Professor Johnson directs the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah where he is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Physics and Bioengineering. His research interests are in the areas of scientific computing and scientific visualization. Dr. Johnson founded the SCI research group in 1992, which has since grown to become the SCI Institute employing over 100 faculty, staff and students. Professor Johnson serves on several international journal editorial boards, as well as on advisory boards to several national research centers. Professor Johnson has received several awards, including the the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow (PFF) award from President Clinton in 1995 and the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology from Governor Michael Leavitt in 1999. In 2003 he received the Distinguished Professor Award from the University of Utah. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and in 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).