At work

As a scientist, I take seriously my responsibility to communicate findings in a clear, friendly, and accurate way. My results have to speak to every member of a cross-functional team; if they don't understand it, that's my fault.

To this end, I use data visualization every day in my work, and at every stage of a project, typically culminating in some kind of report, interactive dashboard, or academic publication. In my experience, good visualizations can light up a room, spark participation from shy people, and advance a group's thinking when it is stuck. I love it.

On the podium

While at Optum Patient Insights, I developed a one-hour introductory talk on data visualization. I now give this talk every year at Ariadne Labs, and every fall semester in a computer science course at Brown University. The talk centers on a graph makeover, and is highly interactive and (hopefully!) fun. I have been delighted to deliver it at several other venues around the Harvard Medical School system and hospitals, invited through word of mouth.

I also have given invited talks at a variety of venues on differences in how people comprehend data, and data visualization during the COVID-19 pandemic. I enjoy public speaking and teaching, especially in person rather than on camera.

At home

I enjoy visualizing data in my spare time. Here are two examples.

Recently I used R Shiny to build an interactive visualization of all of the questions in Shakespeare's Hamlet (link at right).

Several years ago, I visualized 600 million years of evolution in an 18-foot-long fold-out toy for kids. Amazon still has the listing and photos, although I am no longer selling it. This project won a 2009 Best of RI award from RI Monthly Magazine.