May 5Talking the TalkPreparing for the Academic Job Talk — So you have been invited to an interview for an academic position. How exciting! Typically such an interview will include you giving an academic job talk to your would-be colleagues. How do you even prepare to do such a thing? People give job talks and get hired all the time…Job Hunting12 min read
Jan 14Preparing for the Big DayGuidelines for defending your Ph.D. proposal or dissertation. — So, you’re finally at the point when you are about to defend your Ph.D. dissertation. In the United States, this is generally a two-stage process: first you write and orally defend your dissertation proposal (the proposal exam/defense), and then you turn your proposal into a complete dissertation and defend that…Ph D12 min read
Published in Sparks of Innovation: Stories from the HCIL·May 26, 2021Director’s LetterIntroducing the 2021 HCIL Symposium on May 27, 2021. — It is May 2021 when I write this, and the world looks a lot different from only a year ago. A year ago, we were still coming to terms with a pandemic that had rapidly taken over the globe. A year ago, we were still getting used to social distancing…Research4 min read
May 21, 2021Why You Should Remain AnonymousOn the perils of revealing your identity after peer review. — Just this morning I came upon a tweet by Evan Peck, a colleague and fellow CS faculty member, who was raising the question about whether you should ever follow-up with a person for whom you wrote a tenure letter, essentially giving them a “virtual high-five” for their achievement. …Peer Review3 min read
Published in Sparks of Innovation: Stories from the HCIL·Oct 21, 2020The HCIL at IEEE VIS 2020Visualization research to be presented at top academic conference. Next week, on October 25 to 30, is the annual IEEE VIS 2020 conference, the premier event for academic research on data visualization. In theory, the conference was supposed to take place in Salt Lake City, and home of the SCI…Research3 min read
Oct 1, 2020The Sublime Art of Recruiting External ReviewersMy thoughts on recruiting external reviewers for peer review. Here’s a straightforward post on one of the mundanities of academic life: recruiting external reviewers. Ever since becoming a faculty member in summer 2008, amazingly now 10 years ago (yikes!), I have found myself being invited to an ever-increasing number of…Peer Review8 min read
Sep 30, 2020On Detective WorkRespecting the double-blind review process. Academic publication is built on peer review, and many such peer review process are “double blind”, which means that both authors and the reviewers are supposed to be blissfully unaware of each other’s identities. The idea is that scientific work should be reviewed on its…Peer Review2 min read
Published in Sparks of Innovation: Stories from the HCIL·Jun 2, 2020Devices All The Way DownA look back at my NSF CAREER project. Good news sometimes strikes in the most unlikely moments. In November 2012, as my wife and I were out at a museum in Indianapolis, she had the misfortune of having to witness me strutting out of a public restroom with my arms…Research6 min read
Published in Sparks of Innovation: Stories from the HCIL·May 22, 2020Director’s LetterIntroducing the 2020 HCIL Symposium on May 28, 2020. Let me begin this letter by sending my warmest wishes for the health and harmony of all of us in the HCIL community. …Research3 min read
May 19, 2020Workshops, Conferences, Journals — Oh My!Understanding different types of scholarly output. There are many ways to communicate your work as a scientist: invited talks, mainstream media, consulting, software, datasets, or on social media or online websites. However, the academic publication is the main type of communication. But papers can be produced at several stages of…Peer Review8 min read
