Aiken Endowed Chair: Donna Cox

Donna J. Cox is a recognized pioneer in computer art and scientific visualization. Her greatest passion is to bring science to a wide range of audiences through innovative, inspiring, and artistic presentations. Many international programs have featured Cox and her work, and she is a recognized keynote speaker at events including Supercomputing Conference, Harvard, National Library of Medicine, and the Australian Film Commission. Her papers and monologues analyze scientific visualization, information design, interdisciplinary education, and critical art theory. Leonardo International Society in Arts Science and Technology awarded Cox the international Coler-Maxwell Award for Excellence for her seminal paper, “Using Supercomputer to Visualize Higher Dimensions: An Artist's Contribution to Science.” She coined the term “Renaissance Teams” to describe interdisciplinary collaborative groups addressing research grand challenges. The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry selected her as one of 40 modern Leonardo DaVinci’s. She was Art Director and Producer for Scientific Visualization for the science educational IMAX film "Cosmic Voyage," nominated for 1997 Academy Award and funded by National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institute, and the Motorola Foundation. Her collaborations in data-driven visualizations are showing in a variety of international large-format venues including digital planetarium and IMAX theaters. She and her collaborators have thrilled millions of people with visualizations for such high-definition television programs as the PBS “Hunt for the Supertwister” and the American Museum of Natural History’s “Passport to the Universe.” “Black Holes: the otherside of Infinity“ digital planetarium show premiered at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and is currently playing at 24 full-dome digital planetariums around the world including the Adler Planetarium, Chicago. She and the NCSA visualization team recently produced the high-definition PBS NOVA show, “Monster of the Milky Way”. Cox was SIGGRAPH Director at large for four years and SIGGRAPH 2005 Emerging Technologies Chair. She is currently on the Editorial Board of Leonardo.