Speakers and Panelists

Franco NeriDr. Steven Franconeri

Dr. Steven Franconeri is a Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University and Director of the Northwestern Cognitive Science Program. His research is on visual thinking, visual communication, and the psychology of data visualization. He directs the Visual Thinking Laboratory, where a team of researchers explore the power and limits of your visual system, and how better design and pedagogy can help students and scientists understand and use visual representations across paper, screens, and their imagination.

His undergraduate training was in computer science and cognitive science at Rutgers University, followed by a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University, and postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia. His work on both Cognitive Science and Data Visualization has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the Department of Defense. He has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Psychonomic Society Early Career award, for his research on visual thinking.

Lace PadillaDr. Jeff Heer

Dr. Jeffrey Heer is the Jerre D. Noe Endowed Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he directs the Interactive Data Lab and conducts research on data visualization, human-computer interaction and social computing. The visualization tools developed by Jeff and his collaborators –Vega(-Lite), D3.js, Protovis, Prefuse–are used by researchers, companies, and data enthusiasts around the world. Jeff holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He is also a co-founder of Trifacta, a provider of interactive tools for scalable data transformation.

Allison HorstDr. Allison Horst

Dr. Allison Horst is an assistant teaching professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she teaches statistics, data analysis, and science communication. She is co-founder of Santa Barbara R-Ladies, founder and organizer of UCSB Tidy Tuesdays, and artist-in-residence at RStudio. Her work prioritizes making data science more engaging and welcoming to diverse learners. Allison received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCSB, followed by a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Management at the Bren School.

Alice Chen KittermanAlice Chen Kitterman

Alice Chen Kitterman is a scientific illustrator for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, creating illustrations for the family of journals: Science, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, Science Immunology and Science Robotics. From this work, she creates the animated posts for the Science Visuals Instagram site. She holds a Master of Science in Biomedical Communications from the University of Toronto. Through the vast array of projects she has undertaken throughout her career, what is universal to all is the art of storytelling, which she believes should kept in mind from beginning to end.

Vivian PengVivian Peng

Vivian Peng is a data scientist and visual artist with a background in public health and communications. Her training approach centers on design thinking to understand how to frame, analyze, and visualize data in an easy-to-understand fashion. Currently, she is the data scientist for the Mayor of LA's innovation team. Get to know her work at vivianpeng.com.

Sarah LeoDr. Sarah Leo

Sarah Leo is a Visual Data Journalist at The Economist, where she creates charts and maps for the print and online editions. In her work she combines journalism, statistics and design to enhance stories and help readers digest complex topics. Before joining The Economist, Sarah worked with NGOs and charities to translate data into graphics used for advocacy and policy development. Sarah is passionate about promoting the ethical and transparent use of data analysis and visualisation. She holds a PhD in Political Science from University College London.