Bernice Rogowitz

Research Scientist, Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin, USA; Founder and Chief Scientist, Visual Perspectives Consulting
Country of birth: USA

Educational background: PhD Vision Research/Experimental Psychology, Columbia University; BS Experimental Psychology, Brandeis University

A typical work day
My work is at the interface between technology and research in human perception and cognition. Right now as part of a grant from the NSF to build the iPlant Cyberinfrastructure for plant biologists, I'm designing a visualization method that incorporates perceptual rules to help scientists and data analysts select appropriate ways to represent their data. The goal is to create a tool that will allow scientists to take data from one visualization and map them onto another. This week, I'm also putting the finishing touches on the program for the IS&T/SPIE Conference on Human Vision and Electronic Imaging, which I founded over 20 years ago and continue to co-chair. This is always an exciting time, since the conference brings together researchers in imaging science, optics, perception, cognition, and signal processing to explore emerging technologies and artistic media
through the lens of human information processing. I also spend time serving my community by reviewing academic papers and mentoring.

What I enjoy most
The thing I enjoy most is the opportunity to be creative, which for me, means always learning new things and exploring new connections. Working with colleagues from different disciplines fuels this creativity.

Words of wisdom
Maintain your contacts. If you meet someone you learn from or enjoy thinking with, keep in touch with them. This is a gift that keeps giving. And, in your work, don't forget to keep asking "why?" Why am I doing this experiment? Why do the data depart from my prediction? Why does this work matter?