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WORLD-RENOWNED COMPUTER GRAPHICS EXPERT
IS IU'S FIRST DISTINGUISHED VISITING TECHNOLOGIST
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Professor Donna J. Cox has been named as Indiana University's first Distinguished Visiting Technologist in the Advanced Information Technology Laboratory at University Information Technology Services.
The announcment of Cox's appointment was made Oct. 23 by Michael McRobbie, vice president for information technology.
Cox's innovative and award-winning work in combining computer technology and art to create new forms of scientific visualization has gained international acclaim. She is regarded as one of the pioneers of the "second wave" in computer graphic art and is credited with setting current standards for scientific visualization.
"Cox is a recognized international leader," McRobbie said. "She is an accomplished researcher, exhibitor, author and producer whose expertise in graphics, visualization, virtual reality, and teleimmersion will be of great benefit to IU researchers and technology staff members. IU is greatly honored that a person of her eminence is the first Distinguished Visiting Technologist."
Cox will help build collaborations at IU between researchers in information technologies and faculty and staff who work in the visual and fine arts and related areas where IU is particularly strong, especially computer graphics, visualization, virtual reality and teleimmersion.
She will also develop collaborations between these areas at IU and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's (UIUC) National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where she is assistant director of the Virtual Director Team for the National Technology Grid Group. She is also professor and director of the Center for Graphic Technologies at UIUC's School of Art and Design.
Cox, whose formal training is in the visual arts, has exhibited computer images and animations in more than 100 invitational exhibits and has written numerous papers on computer graphics, information design and scientific visualization. These include the ground-breaking article, "Using the Supercomputer to Visualize Higher Dimensions: An Artist's Contribution to Scientific Visualization," published in Leonardo, an international journal of art, technology and science. In this article, she developed the concept of "Renaissance Teams."
A Renaissance Team, according to Cox, is not "art or science by committee," but a process that can "provide a critical mass of knowledge which can effectively address concepts, aesthetics and technological advances. The Renaissance Team can be a powerful creative entity and depends upon the essence of communication, understanding and mutual respect in order to be effective, productive and creative."
In 1996, Cox put her Renaissance Team theory to the test when she assembled top-rated filmmakers, scientists, astronomers, physicists, biologists and computer animation experts to create the Academy Award-nominated IMAX film, Cosmic Voyage. As the film's associate producer for visualization, Cox used computer-generated imagery, 3-D modeling techniques and various other state-of-the-art production tools to emphasize the magnitude of our universe. The film's computer animation sequences demonstrate the power of computer technologies in making complex scientific information comprehensible. This melding of art and science to make the invisible visible Cox calls "edutainment."
Cox's work is also serving to revolutionize the way Hollywood makes movies. Working with colleagues from NCSA, Cox developed "Virtual Director," a virtual reality choreographer that allows animators to be completely immersed in their scene like never before. This process, which Cox describes as "stepping inside the computer," provides them with new levels of creativity and control.
For more information on Cox, the distinguished visiting technologist appointment, or University Information Technolgy Services, contact Donald F. McMullen, 812-855-0360, mcmullen@indiana.edu or Karen Adams, 812-856-5596, kadams@indiana.edu