University of Utah Visualization Pioneer to Receive IEEE Computer Society Fernbach Award at SC13
DENVER, CO - Christopher Johnson, founding director of the University of Utah's Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute, will receive the 2013 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award when SC13 convenes Nov. 17 – 22 at the Colorado Convention Center.
The award will be presented before the keynote address on Tuesday morning, along with the IEEE Seymour Cray Computer Science and Engineering Award and the ACM-IEEE Ken Kennedy Award.
The IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award was established in 1992 in honor of Sidney Fernbach, one of the pioneers in the development and application of high performance computers for solving large computational problems. It recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of high performance computers using innovative approaches, including creation of widely used and innovative software packages, applications and tools. The award consists of a certificate and a $2,000 honorarium.
Johnson is a distinguished professor of computer science at the University of Utah and also holds faculty appointments in the departments of physics and bioengineering. In 1992, he founded the Scientific Computing and Imaging research group, which has grown to become the 200-person SCI Institute. The IEEE Computer Society is recognizing Johnson "for outstanding contributions and pioneering work introducing computing, simulation, and visualization into many areas of biomedicine," according to IEEE.
“Chris Johnson is an inspiration to everyone in the field of scientific visualization and to researchers worldwide,” said SC13 Awards Chair Dan Reed, vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa. “His creative approaches to computer graphics and visualization have allowed scientists to look at their data in ways never before possible. That’s the kind of work that enables discovery.”
Johnson is known internationally as a leader in using computer graphics, imaging, and visualization to address critical problems in biomedicine and other fields. His nominators highlighted his research in scientific visualization and scientific computing, not only because it is innovative, but because it has important real-world applications in many fields, including scalar and vector field visualization, problem-solving environments, and biomedical computing and visualization.
Johnson serves on several international journal editorial boards, as well as on advisory boards to several national research centers. He received a U.S. National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow award from President Bill Clinton in 1995 and the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology from Utah Governor Michael Leavitt in 1999.
He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2012, he received the IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium Charles Babbage Award.
About SC13
SC13, sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE Computer Society, offers a complete technical education program and exhibition to showcase the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce. This premier international conference includes a globally attended technical program, workshops, tutorials, a world-class exhibit area, demonstrations and opportunities for hands-on learning. For more information on SC13, please visit: http://sc13.supercomputing.org
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