Tamara Munzner, UBC Home Page

Tamara Munzner

InfoVis Group
DFP: Designing for People
CAIDA: Centre for Artificial Intelligence Decision-making and Action
DSI: Data Science Institute

Professor
Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia
Imager Graphics, Visualization and HCI Lab

Email: tmm (at) cs.ubc.ca, Phone: 604-827-5200, Fax: 604-822-5485, Twitter: @tamaramunzner, Mastodon: @tamara@cosocial.ca
Snailmail: 201-2366 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Office: X661, in X-Wing extension behind ICICS/CS building
Office Hours: after class in IBLC 261 (Tue 5pm), or by appointment in X661 or Zoom (email me)
Calendar: My potential availability (aka maybe/no or free/busy) calendar
LinkedIn: LinkedIn
Scholar: Google Scholar

Other pages: VAD Book | Blog | Publications | Talks | Software | Videos | CV | Bio

Jump to: Research | Teaching | Students | Books | Press | More Information

Research

My research interests include the development, evaluation, and characterization of visualization systems and techniques from both user-driven and technique-driven perspectives. See the Publications page for papers about recent projects.

Teaching

Undergrad
- CPSC 447, Intro to Visualization: current Jan 2025, old Sep 2023, Jan 2023; old number 436V: Jan 2022, Jan 2021, Jan 2020.
- CPSC 314, Computer Graphics: Jan 2016, Jan 2013, Jan 2010, Jan 2008, Jan 2007, May 2005, Jan 2005; old number 414: Sep 2003
- CPSC 213, Intro to Computer Systems: Sep 2012, Jan 2012, Sep 2010
- CPSC 111, Intro to Computation: Jan 2010, Jan 2006
Grad
- CPSC 547, Information Visualization: upcoming Sep 2025. Sep 2022, Sep 2021, Sep 2020, Sep 2019, Sep 2017, Jan 2017, Sep 2015, Sep 2014; old number 533C: Sep 2011, Sep 2009, Sep 2007, Sep 2006, Sep 2005, Sep 2004, Jan 2004, Jan 2003
- MDS/DSCI 531, Data Visualization I, Nov 2016
- MDS/DSCI 532, Data Visualization II, Jan 2018, Mar 2017
- JRNL 520M, Special Topics Visualization for Journalists: Sep 2016, Sep 2015
- Stanford University CS448B: Special Topics Visualization: Apr 2002
General
- Writing Pet Peeves: Correctness, References, and Style
- Cheating: The List Of Things I Never Want To Hear Again

Current Students

Former Students

Postdoc
- Charles Berret, 2021-2022, then postdoc at Linkoping University
- Jürgen Bernard, 2019-2020, then Assistant Professor at University of Zurich
- Michelle Borkin, 2014-2015, then Assistant/Associate Professor at Northeastern
- Stephen Ingram, 2013-2014, then startup Coho Data, then RISC Networks
- Michael Sedlmair, 2010-2012, then Assistant Professor University of Vienna, then Associate Professor Jacobs, then Professor at Stuttgart
- Miriah Meyer, at Harvard co-supervised by Hanspeter Pfister, 2008-2011, then Assistant/Associate Professor at University of Utah, then Professor at Linkoping
- Melanie Tory, co-supervised by Kelly Booth, 2004-2006, then Assistant/Associate Professor at University of Victoria, then Tableau Research, then Director of the Northeastern Roux Institute
PhD
- Zipeng Liu
  2015-2021, graduated 2021, then Assistant Prof at Beihang
  - thesis: Visualizing Multi-Level Structures in Data
- Michael Oppermann
  2016-2021, graduated 2021, then at Virtual Identity, then at Austrian Institute of Technology
  - thesis: Data-Driven Prototyping in Information Visualization
- Anamaria Crisan
  co-supervised by Jennifer Gardy, 2015-2019, graduated 2019, then Tableau Research, then Assistant Prof at Waterloo
  - thesis: Visualizing Heterogeneous Data in Genomic Epidemiology
- Georges Hattab,
  2016-2017 visiting from Bielefeld, supervised by Tim Nattkemper, graduated 2018
- Matt Brehmer
  co-supervised by Joanna McGrenere, 2011-2016, graduated 2016, then Microsoft Research postdoc, then Tableau Research, then Assistant Prof at Waterloo
  - thesis: Why Visualization? Task Abstraction for Analysis and Design
- Stephen Ingram
  2007-2013, graduated 2013, then postdoc
  - thesis: Practical Considerations for Dimensionality Reduction: User Guidance, Costly Distances, and Document Data
- Penny McLachlan
  2006-2009, then at Mobify (as co-founder), then at Google
- Daniel Archambault
  co-supervised by David Auber (LaBRI, Universite de Bordeaux I), 2004-2008, graduated 2008, then postdoc at Bordeaux/INRIA and Dublin, then lecturer at Swansea, now Professor at Newcastle.
  - thesis: Feature-Based Graph Visualization
- Heidi Lam
  2004-2008, graduated 2008, then at Google, then Tableau Research, then Google
  - thesis: Visual exploratory analysis of large data sets: evaluation and application
- James Slack
  2005-2008, then Affordable Affiliates, then Oracle
MSc
- Kimberly Dextras-Romagnino
  2015-2018, graduated 2018, now at Kabam.
  - thesis: Segmentifier: Interactively Refining Clickstream Data into Actionable Segments
- Dylan (Wenqiang) Dong
  2015-2017, graduated 2017, then at The Sky Guys.
- Johanna Fulda
  visiting student from Andreas Butz's group in Munich, 2014-2015, graduated 2015, then at Cumul8, then at Clir.
  - thesis: TimeLineCurator: Interactive Authoring of Visual Timelines from Unstructured Text
- Jessica Dawson
  co-supervised by Joanna McGrenere, 2011-2013, graduated 2013, then UBC CS lecturer, then UBC med school
  - thesis: A Search Set Model of Path Tracing In Graphs
- Joel Ferstay
  co-supervised by Cydney Nielsen, 2012-2013, graduated 2013, then at AeroInfo
  - thesis: Variant View: Visualizing Sequence Variants in their Gene Context
- Aaron Barsky
  2006-2008, graduated 2008, then at BC Cancer Agency, then Hemisphere Games, then LionsGate, then Aimsio, now at Rivian
  - thesis: Cerebral: Visualizing Multiple Experimental Conditions on a Graph with Biological Context
- Stephen Ingram
  co-supervised by Marc Olano, 2006-2007, graduated 2007, then PhD
  - thesis: Multilevel Multidimensional Scaling on the GPU
- Penny McLachlan
  2005-2006, graduated 2006, then UBC CS PhD student, then at Mobify, then at Google
  - thesis: LiveRAC - Live Reorderable Accordion Drawing
- Qiang Kong
  co-supervised by Raymond Ng, 2004-2006, graduated 2006, then at Electronic Arts, then Microsoft
  - thesis: Visual Mining of Powersets with Large Alphabets
- Dmitry Nekrasovski
  co-supervised by Joanna McGrenere, 2004-2005, graduated 2005, then at IBM Burnaby, then at Elastic Path, then at OpenText, now at Atlas
  - thesis: A Comparison of Pan and Zoom and Rubber-Sheet Navigation
- Adam Bodnar
  co-supervised by Joanna McGrenere, 2004-2005, graduated 2005, then Oculus, then Infor, then Black Coral, now ESRI
  - thesis: An Evaluation of Overviews for Large Tree Navigation
- James Slack
  2003-2005, graduated 2005
  - thesis: A Partitioned Rendering Infrastructure for Stable Accordion Navigation
- Kristian Hildebrand
  co-supervised by Bernd Fröhlich, visiting student 2003-2004, graduated 2005 from Bauhaus University, Weimar/Berlin, then PhD student at TU Berlin, then prof at Beuth Univ. Applied Sci.
- Matt Williams
  2003-2004, graduated 2004, then at Vancouver public schools
  - thesis: QuestVis and MDSteer: The Visualization of High-Dimensional Sustainability Data
- Dale Beermann
  co-supervised by Greg Humphreys, 2003-2004, graduated 2004 from University of Virginia, then at Emageon, then at Imago, then at Sharendipity, then at StudyBlue
  - thesis: Scalable, Robust Visualization of Very Large Trees
Undergrad
- Sam Fraser, fall 2022 - spring 2023, graduated 2023, then Datadog.
  - Directed studies project. OpenRefine
- Edris Wu. spring 2022, graduated 2022, then CreateApe.
  - COGS directed studies project. The Development of Plover: Visualizing Language Level Provenance
- Shabab Khan. summer 2021, graduated 2021.
  - Summer co-op project: Visicorn
- Mara Solen, 2020-2021, graduated 2021, then PhD
  - Directed studies project: VIVA.
- Luce Liu, spring 2021, graduated 2021, then Mark43
  - COGS directed studies project: TimeElide: Visual Analysis of Non-Contiguous Time Series Slices.
- Jude Shamsi, spring 2021, then Tesla.
  - Directed studies project: Visicorn
- Shannah Fisher, summer 2019, then USask
  - Directed studies project: MinCombinR
- Yann Dubois, summer 2017, graduated 2017, then at Grab, then grad school at Cambridge
- Parmida Esmaeilpour, directed studies 2016, graduated 2016, then in UBC Political Science MSc program
- Jessica Dawson, co-supervised by Joanna McGrenere, 2009-2011, graduated 2011, then MSc
- Anton Zoubarev, directed studies 2009-2010
  - survey paper: Tools for visual analysis of biological networks
- Ciarán Llachlan Leavitt, part-time 2004-2008, graduated 2011, then Slant Six Games, now Richmond County Literacy Network
- Alex Vostrov, co-supervised with Ken Elwood, honors thesis 2005-2006, graduated 2006
  - thesis: EqkVis: Visualization For Earthquake Simulation Data
- David Westrom, summer and directed studies 2004-2005, graduated 2005, then at Electronic Arts, then Zynga, then Massdrop
- Janek Klawe, summer and honours thesis 2003-2004, graduated 2004, then Princeton
  - thesis: Compression for Power Set Visualization using Accordion Drawing
- Keith Lau, co-supervised by Ron Rensink, summer and honours thesis

2003-2004, graduated 2004, then MS from Cornell, then at Bloomberg

thesis: Perceptual Invariance of Nonlinear Focus+Context Transformations

Jordan Lee, co-op 2003-2004, graduated 2004, then at Electronic Arts

Dragana Radulovic, co-op 2003-2004, graduated 2004, then at Joule, then Tatara, then Smith Micro, then Trader

Jeffrey Zhihui Zhang, co-op 2003-2004, graduated 2006, then at Business Objects

Prospective Students

If you are interested in working with me as a graduate student at UBC, please see my directions on how to apply.

Jim Whitehead has some excellent advice for contacting faculty. Although some of his points are specific to UCSC (the differential cost of foreign and native students, the exact details of how to apply), most of the rest is very valid.

I have written down some policies of how I run my group.

Books

GoodReads profile
GoodReads, books read, ordered chronologically, covers view
GoodReads, books read, ordered chronologically, table view with per-book ratings
GoodReads, favorites (5-star ratings), ordered alphabetically
List of Books Read, Chronological
List of Books Read, By Author, with some per-author blurbs

I read way too much, mostly science fiction and fantasy novels. I'll admit to reading some utter trash, but I only recommend the good ones. I add books to the recommended list chronologically. I also have a perl script that collates a list by author, which includes short blurbs about some of the authors. My GoodReads page has per-book ratings (but no blurbs). It covers everything I've read for the past several years, all of my physical book library, plus partial coverage of what I happened to remember reading in the more distant past.

Press

2021 CHCCS/SCDHM Achievement Award of the Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society citation, May 2021
2015 IEEE VGTC Visualization Technical Achievement Award citation, Oct 2015
Reddit AMA, Aug 2015
AU Review interview, May 2015
Podcast interview: Data Stories #44 w/ Tamara Munzner, Dec 2014
Quoted in the New York Times, article Crunching Data for the Tree of Life, Feb 2009.
Interviewed by Horizon Zero, article Thinking With Vision, Jan 2003

More Information

Old Home Pages
- Stanford home page, active 1995-2002
- Geometry Center home page, active 1993-1995 (archival mirror graciously provided by UIUC)
Pictures
- The cats have their own page, as they should.
- More pictures of me than are strictly necessary.
Aribert Munzner
- artist, creator of the painting on the cover of my book, and my father
Burning Man projects
- You Are Here: Black Rock Natural History Museum, Conceptual Cartography