VIS Dissertation Award Previous Recipients
2024 (13 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Lin Yan
Dissertation Title: Merge Trees and Their Variants For Scientific Visualization
Affiliation: University of Utah
Advisor: Professor Bei Wang Phillips
Honorable Mention: Dr. Sebastian Weiss
Affiliation: Technical University of Munich
Co-Advisors: Professor Ruediger Westermann
Honorable Mention: Dr. Joscha Eirich
Affiliation: University of Bamberg, Germany
Advisor: Professor Ute Schmid
Honorable Mention: Dr. Zehua Zeng
Affiliation: University of Washington, USA
Advisor: Professor Leilani Battle
2023 (11 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Aoyu Wu
Dissertation Title: Efficient Creation and Analysis of Visualizations for Data Communication
Affiliation: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Harvard
Advisor: Professor Huamin Qu
Honorable Mention: Dr. Alex Kale
Affiliation: University of Washington
Co-Advisors: Professor Jessica Hullman and Professor Amy Ko
Honorable Mention: Dr. Mennatallah El-Assady
Affiliation: University of Konstanz
Advisor: Professor Daniel Keim
Honorable Mention: Dr. Zezhong Wang
Affiliation: University of Edinburgh
Advisor: Professor Benjamin Bach
2022 (6 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Ghulam Jilani Quadri
Dissertation Title: Constructing Task-Optimized framework for Visualization
Affiliation: University of South Florida, USA
Advisor: Paul Rosen
http://jiquadcs.com/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Fritz Lekschas
Dissertation Title: Scalable Visualization Tools for Pattern-Driven Data Exploration
Affiliation: Harvard University, USA
Advisor: Hanspeter Pfister
https://lekschas.de/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Bon Adriel Aseniero
Dissertation Title: An Autobiographical Reflection on Designing Visualizations for Personal Contexts
Affiliation: University of Calgary, Canada
Advisor: Sheelagh Carpendale
https://bonadriel.com/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Cindy Xiong
Dissertation Title: Perceptual and Cognitive Affordances of Data Visualizations
Affiliation: Northwestern University, USA
Advisor: Steven Franconeri
https://cyxiong.com/
2021 (6 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Arjun Srinivasan
Dissertation Title: Combining Natural Language and Direct Manipulation for Human-Data Interaction through Visualizations
Affiliation: Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Advisor: Professor John Stasko
2020 (14 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Dominik Moritz
Dissertation Title: Interactive Systems for Scalable Visualization and Analysis
Affiliation: University of Washington, USA
Advisor: Professor Jeff Heer
https://www.domoritz.de/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Emily Wall
Dissertation Title: Detecting and Mitigating Human Bias in Visual Analytics
Affiliation: Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Advisor: Professor Alex Endert
https://emilywall.github.io/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Carolina Nobre
Dissertation Title: Visualizing Multivariate Networks
Affiliation: University of Utah, USA
Advisor: Professor Alex Lex
https://datascience.harvard.edu/people/carolina-nobre
2019 (13 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Nicola Pezzotti
Dissertation Title: Dimensionality-Reduction Algorithms for Progressive Visual Analytics
Affiliation: TU Delft, The Netherlands
Advisor: Professor Anna Vilanova
https://graphics.tudelft.nl/nicola-pezzotti/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Kuno Kurzhals
Dissertation Title: Visual analytics of eyetracking and video data
Affiliation: University of Stuttgart, Germany
Advisor: Professor Daniel Weiskopf
https://www.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/team/Kurzhals-00001/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jun Wang
Dissertation Title: Visual Causality Analysis
Affiliation: Stony Brook University, USA
Advisor: Professor Klaus Mueller
https://junwang23.github.io/
2018 (13 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Tobias Günther
Dissertation Title: Opacity Optimization and Inertial Particles in Flow Visualization
Affiliation: University of Magdeburg, Germany
Advisor: Professor Holger Theisel
https://graphics.ethz.ch/~gutobia/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Alice Thudt
Dissertation Title: Visualizations for Personal Reflection and Expression
Affiliation: University of Calgary, Canada
Advisor: Professor Sheelagh Carpendale
http://alicethudt.de/
Honorable Mention: Dr. Robert Krüger
Dissertation Title: Visual Analytics of Human Mobility Behavior
Affiliation: University of Stuttgart, Germany
Advisor: Professor Thomas Ertl
https://www.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/mitarbeiter/Krueger-00003/?__locale=en
2017 (9 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Steve Kieffe
Dissertation Title: A Human-Centred Approach to Network Layout Algorithm Design
Affiliation: Monash University
Advisors: Professors Kim Marriott, Tim Dwyer and Michael Wybrow
http://skieffer.info
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jagoda Walny
Dissertation Title: Thinking with Sketches: Leveraging Everyday Use of Visuals for Information Visualization
Affiliation: University of Calgary
Advisor: Professor Sheelagh Carpendale
http://research.jagoda.ca
2016 (12 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Stef van den Elzen
Dissertation Title: Interactive Visualization of Dynamic Multivariate Networks
Affiliation: Eindhoven University of Technology
Advisor: Professor Jarke J. van Wijk
“This dissertation addresses a challenging problem in information and visual analytics, i.e., analyzing, visualizing and exploring temporal and multivariate networks. It describes innovative solutions with both technical rigor and high quality thesis presentation. Its outstanding contributions have been widely acknowledged by the visualization community.”
Honorable Mention: Dr. Michael Krone
Dissertation Title: Interactive Visual Analysis of Biomolecular Simulations
Affiliation: University of Stuttgart
Advisor: Professor Thomas Ertl
“This dissertation presents a series of technical solutions to the common problems in interactive visualization of very large biomolecular structures. It is an outstanding piece of research in scientific visualization with significant impact to the application of bioinformatics. The organization and presentation of the dissertation is exceptional.”
Honorable Mention: Dr. Danielle Nicole Albers Szafir
Dissertation Title: Utilizing Color for Perceptually-Driven Data Visualization
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Advisor: Professor Michael Gleicher
“This dissertation presents empirical studies on novel hypotheses in color perception in visualization. It represents the increasing interest and new discoveries in understanding the cognitive and perceptual aspects of visualization. It will have pervasive impact in all sub-fields of visualization.”
2015 (14 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Samuel Huron
Dissertation Title: Constructive Visualization: A Token-based Paradigm Allowing to Assemble Dynamic Visual Representation for Non-experts
Affiliation: University of Paris-Sud
Advisor: Professor Jean-Daniel Fekete
Honorable Mention: Dr. Eammon Maguire
Dissertation Title: Systematizing Glyph Design for Visualization
Affiliation: University of Oxford
Advisor: Professor Min Chen
Honorable Mention: Dr. Gabriel Mistelbauer
Dissertation Title: Smart Interactive Vessel Visualization in Radiology
Affiliation: Vienna University of Technology
Advisor: Professor Eduard Gröller
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jeremy Boy
Dissertation Title: Engaging the People to Look Beyond the Surface of Online Information Visualizations of Open Data
Affiliation: Telecom ParisTech
Advisor: Professor Jean-Daniel Fekete
2014 (13 Nominations)
Best Dissertation: Dr. Cheuk Horace Ip
Dissertation Title: Towards Data-Driven Large-Scale Scientific Visualization and Exploration
Affiliation: University of Maryland, College Park
Advisor: Professor Amitabh Varshney
Honorable Mention: Dr. Benjamin Bach
Dissertation Title: Connections Changes, and Cubes: Unfolding Dynamic Networks for Visual Exploration
Affiliation: University of Paris-Sud
Advisor: Professor Jean-Daniel Fekete
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jordan Crouser
Dissertation Title: Toward Theoretical Measures for Systems Involving Human Computation
Affiliation: Tufts University
Advisor: Professor Remco Chang