| CARVIEW |
Alexander Lex
My research is on data visualization and human computer interaction. I design, build, and study interactive visual data analysis solutions to aid researchers in data driven fields, such as biology and medicine, in understanding and communicating complex data sets. I also investigate how to make visualization reproducible, how to integrate visualizations with computational workflows, and how to make data visualizations accessible to blind and low-vision users. Finally, I also develop infrastructure for crowd-sourced user studies.
Bio
I am a Professor of Human Computer Interaction at the Institute of Human Centred Computing at Graz University of Technology. I am also affiliated with the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute and the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah. I direct the Visualization Design Lab where we develop visualization methods and systems to help solve today’s scientific problems.
I am the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and multiple best paper awards or honorable mentions at IEEE VIS, ACM CHI, and other conferences, as well as a test of time award at IEEE VIS. I also received a best dissertation award from my alma mater. I co-founded Datavisyn, a startup company developing visualization solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. I am an associate editor for IEEE TVCG and IEEE CG&A, and I served as area papers chair for IEEE VIS in 2021 and 2023. In addition to writing papers, our lab publishes a lot of visualization software. My most popular tool is UpSet, a set visualization technique. Other tools include reVISit, a platform for designing online user studies, MultiNet, a network visualization platform and trrack, a library for tracking provenance in interactive applications. You can find other software on our GitHub Page.
Before joining Graz University of Technology, I was a Professor at the University of Utah. Prior to that, I was a lecturer and post-doctoral visualization researcher at Harvard University. I received my PhD, master’s, and undergraduate degrees from Graz University of Technology.
Alexander Lex, PhD, MSc
Professor
Contact
alex@visdesignlab.net
SCI Institute,
Kahlert School of Computing,
University of Utah
72 South Central Campus Drive,
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
Room: DH 03 180
Publications
Peer-reviewed Journal and Conference Publications
Zach Cutler,
Jack Wilburn,
Hilson Shrestha,
Yiren Ding,
Brian Bollen,
Khandaker Abrar Nadib,
Tingying He,
Andrew McNutt,
Lane Harrison,
Alexander Lex
ReVISit 2: A Full Experiment Life Cycle User Study Framework
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2026
IEEE VIS 2025 Best Paper Award
Haihan Lin,
Maxim Lisnic,
Derya Akbaba,
Miriah Meyer,
Alexander Lex
Here’s what you need to know about my data: Exploring Expert Knowledge’s Role in Data Analysis
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2026
IEEE VIS 2025 Honorable Mention Award
Tingying He,
Maggie McCracken,
Daniel Hajas,
Sarah Creem-Regehr,
Alexander Lex
Using Tactile Charts to Support Comprehension and Learning of Complex Visualizations for Blind and Low-Vision Individuals
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2026
Sehi L’Yi,
Harrison G. Zhang,
Andrew P. Mar,
Thomas C. Smits,
Lawrence Weru,
Sofía Rojas,
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Life Sciences Data Resources Reveals Significant Accessibility Barriers
Scientific Reports, 2025
Andrew McNutt,
Maggie K McCracken,
Ishrat Jahan Eliza,
Daniel Hajas,
Jake Wagoner,
Nate Lanza,
Jack Wilburn,
Sarah Creem-Regehr,
Alexander Lex
Accessible Text Descriptions for UpSet Plots
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2025
Maxim Lisnic,
Zach Cutler,
Marina Kogan,
Alexander Lex
Visualization Guardrails: Designing Interventions Against Cherry-Picking in Interactive Data Explorers
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025
Zach Cutler,
Lane Harrison,
Carolina Nobre,
Alexander Lex
Crowdsourced Think-Aloud Studies
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025
Devin Lange,
Robert Judson-Torres,
Thomas A. Zangle,
Alexander Lex
Aardvark: Composite Visualizations of Trees, Time-Series, and Images
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2024
IEEE VIS 2024 Best Paper Award
Klaus Eckelt,
Kiran Gadhave,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit
Loops: Leveraging Provenance and Visualization to Support Exploratory Data Analysis in Notebooks
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2024
Maxim Lisnic,
Alexander Lex,
Marina Kogan
‘Yeah, this graph doesn't show that’: Analysis of Online Engagement with Misleading Data Visualizations
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024
Kiran Gadhave,
Zach Cutler,
Alexander Lex
Persist: Persistent and Reusable Interactions in Computational Notebooks
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2024
Yiren Ding,
Jack Wilburn,
Hilson Shrestha,
Akim Ndlovu,
Kiran Gadhave,
Carolina Nobre,
Alexander Lex,
Lane Harrison
reVISit: Supporting Scalable Evaluation of Interactive Visualizations
IEEE Visualization and Visual Analytics (VIS), 2023
Devin Lange,
Shaurya Sahai,
Jeff M. Phillips,
Alexander Lex
Ferret: Reviewing Tabular Datasets for Manipulation
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2023
Derya Akbaba,
Devin Lange,
Michael Correll,
Alexander Lex,
Miriah Meyer
Troubling Collaboration: Matters of Care for Visualization Design Study
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023
Maxim Lisnic,
Cole Polychronis,
Alexander Lex,
Marina Kogan
Misleading Beyond Visual Tricks: How People Actually Lie with Charts
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023
Haihan Lin,
Derya Akbaba,
Miriah Meyer,
Alexander Lex
Data Hunches: Incorporating Personal Knowledge into Visualizations
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2022
Kiran Gadhave,
Zach Cutler,
Alexander Lex
Reusing Interactive Analysis Workflows
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2022
Devin Lange,
Eddie Polanco,
Robert Judson-Torres,
Thomas A. Zangle,
Alexander Lex
Loon: Using Exemplars to Visualize Large-Scale Microscopy Data
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VIS), 2021
IEEE VIS 2021 Honorable Mention Award
Kiran Gadhave,
Jochen Görtler,
Zach Cutler,
Carolina Nobre,
Oliver Deussen,
Miriah Meyer,
Jeff Phillips,
Alexander Lex
Predicting Intent Behind Selections in Scatterplot Visualizations
Information Visualization, 2021
Haihan Lin,
Ryan A. Metcalf,
Jack Wilburn,
Alexander Lex
Sanguine: Visual Analysis for Patient Blood Management
Information Visualization, 2021
Carolina Nobre,
Dylan Wootton,
Zach Cutler,
Lane Harrison,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Alexander Lex
reVISit: Looking Under the Hood of Interactive Visualization Studies
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021
Haihan Lin,
Ryan A. Metcalf,
Jack Wilburn,
Alexander Lex
Sanguine: Visual Analysis for Patient Blood Management
Workshop on Visual Analytics in Healthcare at AMIA (VAHC), 2020
Jen Rogers,
Austin H Patton,
Luke Harmon,
Alexander Lex,
Miriah Meyer
Insights From Experiments With Rigor in an EvoBio Design Study
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2021
Zach Cutler,
Kiran Gadhave,
Alexander Lex
Trrack: A Library for Provenance-Tracking in Web-Based Visualizations
IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS), 2020
Carolina Nobre,
Dylan Wootton,
Lane Harrison,
Alexander Lex
Evaluating Multivariate Network Visualization Techniques Using a Validated Design and Crowdsourcing Approach
SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2020
Katarina Furmanova,
Samuel Gratzl,
Holger Stitz,
Thomas Zichner,
Miroslava Jaresova,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit
Taggle: Scalable Visualization of Tabular Data through Aggregation
Information Visualization, 2019
Alex Bigelow,
Carolina Nobre,
Miriah Meyer,
Alexander Lex
Origraph: Interactive Network Wrangling
IEEE Conference on Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), 2019
G. Elisabeta Marai,
Bruno Pinaud,
Katja Bühler,
Alexander Lex,
John H. Morris
Ten Simple Rules to Create Biological Network Figures for Communication
PLOS Computational Biology, 2019
Carolina Nobre,
Marc Streit,
Miriah Meyer,
Alexander Lex
The State of the Art in Visualizing Multivariate Networks
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2019
Jen Rogers,
Nicholas Spina,
Ashley Neese,
Rachel Hess,
Darrel Brodke,
Alexander Lex
Composer: Visual Cohort Analysis of Patient Outcomes
Applied Clinical Informatics, 2019
Carolina Nobre,
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex
Juniper: A Tree+Table Approach to Multivariate Graph Visualization
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2019
Carolina Nobre,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Hilary Coon,
Alexander Lex
Lineage: Visualizing Multivariate Clinical Data in Genealogy Graphs
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2019
Yan Zheng,
Yi Ou,
Alexander Lex,
Jeff M. Phillips
Visualization of Big Spatial Data using Coresets for Kernel Density Estimates
IEEE Transactions on Big Data, 2019
Jen Rogers,
Nicholas Spina,
Ashley Neese,
Rachel Hess,
Darrel Brodke,
Alexander Lex
Composer: Visual Cohort Analysis of Patient Outcomes
Workshop on Visual Analytics in Healthcare at AMIA (VAHC 2018), 2018
Yan Zheng,
Yi Ou,
Alexander Lex,
Jeff M. Phillips
Visualization of Big Spatial Data using Coresets for Kernel Density Estimates
IEEE Symposium on Visualization in Data Science (VDS), 2017
Sean McKenna,
Alexander Lex,
Miriah Meyer
Worksheets for Guiding Novices through the Visualization Design Process
Workshop on Pedagogy of Data Visualization (PDV), 2017
Ethan Kerzner,
Alexander Lex,
Crystal Lynn Sigulinsky,
Timothy Urness,
Bryan William Jones,
Robert E. Marc,
Miriah Meyer
Graffinity: Visualizing Connectivity In Large Graphs
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2017
Thomas Geymayer,
Manuela Waldner,
Alexander Lex,
Dieter Schmalstieg
How Sensemaking Tools Influence Display Space Usage
EuroVis Workshop on Visual Analytics (EuroVA), 2017
Michael Kern,
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Chris R. Johnson
Interactive Visual Exploration And Refinement Of Cluster Assignments
BMC Bioinformatics, 2017
Jake R. Conway,
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg
UpSetR: An R Package For The Visualization Of Intersecting Sets And Their Properties
Bioinformatics, 2017
Christian Partl,
Samuel Gratzl,
Marc Streit,
Anne Mai Wassermann,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Alexander Lex
Pathfinder: Visual Analysis of Paths in Graphs
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2016
EuroVis 2016 Honorable Mention Award
Samuel Gratzl,
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Nicola Cosgrove,
Marc Streit
From Visual Exploration to Storytelling and Back Again
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2016
Hendrik Strobelt,
Bilal Alsallakh,
Joseph Botors,
Brant Peterson,
Mark Borowsky,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Alexander Lex
Vials: Visualizing Alternative Splicing of Genes
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2016
Carolina Nobre,
Alexander Lex
OceanPaths: Visualizing Multivariate Oceanography Data
Proceedings of the Eurographics Conference on Visualization (EuroVis) - Short Papers, 2015
Christian Partl,
Alexander Lex,
Hendrik Strobelt,
Anne Mai Wassermann,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Dieter Schmalstieg
ConTour: Data-Driven Exploration of Multi-Relational Datasets for Drug Discovery
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (VAST), 2014
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex,
Samuel Gratzl,
Christian Partl,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Peter Park,
Nils Gehlenborg
Guided Visual Exploration of Genomic Stratifications in Cancer
Nature Methods, 2014
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Hendrik Strobelt,
Romain Vuillemot,
Hanspeter Pfister
UpSet: Visualization of Intersecting Sets
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2014
10 Year InfoVis Test of Time Award, 2024
Samuel Gratzl,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Alexander Lex,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Marc Streit
Domino: Extracting, Comparing, and Manipulating Subsets across Multiple Tabular Datasets
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2014
IEEE InfoVis 2014 Honorable Mention Award
Thomas Geymayer,
Markus Steinberger,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Show me the Invisible: Visualizing Hidden Content
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2014
ACM CHI 2014 Honorable Mention Award
Cagatay Turkay,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Helwig Hauser
Characterizing Cancer Subtypes using the Dual Analysis Approach in Caleydo StratomeX
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2014
Johnathan D Mercer,
Balaji Pandian,
Alexander Lex,
Nicolas Bonnel,
Hanspeter Pfister
Mu-8: Visualizing Differences between Proteins and their Families
BMC Proceedings, 2014
Samuel Gratzl,
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Hanspeter Pfister,
Marc Streit
LineUp: Visual Analysis of Multi-Attribute Rankings
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2013
IEEE InfoVis 2013 Best Paper Award
Alexander Lex,
Christian Partl,
Denis Kalkofen,
Marc Streit,
Anne Mai Wassermann,
Samuel Gratzl,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Hanspeter Pfister
Entourage: Visualizing Relationships between Biological Pathways using Contextual Subsets
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2013
Christian Partl,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Denis Kalkofen,
Karl Kashofer,
Dieter Schmalstieg
enRoute: Dynamic Path Extraction from Biological Pathway Maps for Exploring Heterogeneous Experimental Datasets
BMC Bioinformatics, 2013
Clemens Holzhüter,
Alexander Lex,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Hans-Jörg Schulz,
Heidrun Schumann,
Marc Streit
Visualizing Uncertainty in Biological Expression Data
Proceedings of the SPIE Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis (VDA), 2012
Marc Streit,
Hans-Jörg Schulz,
Alexander Lex,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Heidrun Schumann
Model-Driven Design for the Visual Analysis of Heterogeneous Data
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2012
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Hans-Jörg Schulz,
Christian Partl,
Dieter Schmalstieg,
Peter Park,
Nils Gehlenborg
StratomeX: Visual Analysis of Large-Scale Heterogeneous Genomics Data for Cancer Subtype Characterization
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis), 2012
EuroVis 2012 3rd Best Paper Award
Christian Partl,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Denis Kalkofen,
Karl Kashofer,
Dieter Schmalstieg
enRoute: Dynamic Path Extraction from Biological Pathway Maps for In-Depth Experimental Data Analysis
Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Biological Data Visualization (BioVis), 2012
IEEE BioVis 2012 Best Paper Award
Thomas Geymayer,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Visualizing the Effects of Logically Combined Filters
Proceedings of the Conference on Information Visualisation (IV), 2011
Alexander Lex,
Hans-Jörg Schulz,
Marc Streit,
Christian Partl,
Dieter Schmalstieg
VisBricks: Multiform Visualization of Large, Inhomogeneous Data
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2011
Markus Steinberger,
Manuela Waldner,
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Context-Preserving Visual Links
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis'11), 2011
IEEE InfoVis 2011 Best Paper Award
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Ernst Kruijff,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Caleydo: Design and Evaluation of a Visual Analysis Framework for Gene Expression Data in its Biological Context
Proceedings of IEEE Pacific Visualization Symposium (PacificVis), 2010
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Christian Partl,
Karl Kashofer,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Comparative Analysis of Multidimensional, Quantitative Data
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (InfoVis), 2010
Manuela Waldner,
Werner Puff,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Visual Links across Applications
Proceedings of the Graphics Interface (GI), 2010
GI 2010 Best Student Paper Award
Heimo Müller,
Robert Reihs,
Stefan Sauer,
Kurt Zatloukal,
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex,
Bernhard Schlegl,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Connecting Genes with Diseases
Proceedings of the Conference on Information Visualisation (IV), 2009
Manuela Waldner,
Alexander Lex,
Marc Streit,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Design Considerations for Collaborative Information Workspaces in Multi-Display Environments
Proceedings of Workshop on Collaborative Visualization on Interactive Surfaces (CoVIS'09, VisWeek), 2009
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex,
Heimo Müller,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Gaze-Based Focus Adaption in an Information Visualization System
Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Graphics and Visualization and Image Processing (CGVCVIP), 2009
Marc Streit,
Alexander Lex,
Michael Kalkusch,
Kurt Zatloukal,
Dieter Schmalstieg
Caleydo: Connecting Pathways with Gene Expression
Bioinformatics, 2009
Commentary
Alexander Lex,
Nils Gehlenborg
Points of view: Sets and intersections
Nature Methods, 2014
Thesis
Alexander Lex
Visualization of Multidimensional Data with Applications in Molecular Biology
Graz University of Technology, PhD Thesis, March 2012
Best Dissertation Award, awarded by "Forum Technology and Society", Graz University of Technology
Selected Posters
Jack Wilburn,
Alexander Lex
ReVISit: Declarative Study Framework
NSF CIRC PI Meeting, 2023
Jack Wilburn,
Alexander Lex
MultiNet: Multivariate Network Visualization
NSF CSSI PI Meeting, 2023
Kiran Gadhave,
Hendrik Strobelt,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Alexander Lex
UpSet 2: From Prototype to Tool
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference – Posters (InfoVis), 2019
Ilkin Safarli,
Alexander Lex
TaMax: Visualizing Dense Multivariate Networks with Adjacency Matrices
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference – Posters (InfoVis), 2019
Haihan Lin,
Carolina Nobre,
Amanda Bakian,
Alexander Lex
Clipped Graphs: A Compact Time-Series Encoding
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference – Posters (InfoVis), 2019
Dylan Wootton,
Ethan Ransom,
Alexander Lex
Arctic Explorer: Visualization of Sea-Ice Concentration along Arctic Shipping Routes
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference – Posters (InfoVis), 2019
Alex Bigelow,
Carolina Nobre,
Alexander Lex,
Miriah Meyer
Mure.js: Toward Flexible Authoring and Reshaping of Networks
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference - Posters (InfoVis), 2018
Jen Rogers,
Nicholas Spina,
Ashley Neese,
Rachel Hess,
Darrel Brodke,
Alexander Lex
Composer: Visual Cohort Analysis of Patient Outcomes
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference - Posters, 2018
Carolina Nobre,
Nils Gehlenborg,
Hilary Coon,
Alexander Lex
Lineage
Proceedings of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference - Posters (InfoVis), 2017
Funded Research Projects
ForeSITE: Forecasting and Surveillance of Infectious Threats and Epidemics
PI: Matthew Samore
Sponsor: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Duration: 2023-2028
Development and pre-clinical validation of Quantitative Imaging of Cell state Kinetics (QuICK) to inform selection of melanoma therapy
PI: Thomas Zangle
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Co-PI(s):
Robert Judson-Torres
Duration: 2023-2028
Enhancing Loon: Increasing Robustness and Generalizing Input Formats for a Visualization Tool for Large-Scale Microscopy Data
PI: Alexander Lex*
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Co-PI(s):
Thomas Zangle,
Robert Judson-Torres
Duration: 2023-2024
reVISit: Scalable Empirical Evaluation of Interactive Visualizations
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
Co-PI(s):
Lane Harrison
Duration: 07/01/2022-06/30/2025
Achieving Accessibility for UpSet Plots
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Duration: 08/31/2022-08/31/2024
EAGER: Understanding and Mitigating Misinformation in Visualizations On Social Media
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
Co-PI(s):
Marina Kogan
Duration: 01/01/2021-06/30/2022
Collaborative Research: Framework: Software: HDR: Reproducible Visual Analysis of Multivariate Networks with MultiNet
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
Co-PI(s):
Miriah Meyer,
Jeff Baumes,
Curtis Lisle,
Luke Harmon
Duration: 01/01/2019-12/31/2022
CAREER: Enabling Reproducibility of Interactive Visual Data Analysis
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
Duration: 04/01/2018-03/31/2024
Lineage: Integrating Clinical and Genetic Data with Genealogical Records
PI: Alexander Lex
Sponsor: The Utah Genome Project
Duration: 2018-2019
Increasing the State's Resiliency to Fluctuations in Defense Spending by Strengthening the Carbon Composite Sector Knowledge Base
PI: Gregory Jones
Sponsor: The Department of Defense
Duration: 2016-2018
Visual Analysis of Genomic and Clinical Data from Large Patient Cohorts
PI: Peter J. Park
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Duration: 2015-2018
Talks
Keynote Talks
Provenance as a Bridge Between Data Analysis Modalities
Key |
PDF
Workshop on Visualization and Provenance Across Domains, IEEE VIS, Melbourne, Australia, 2023-10-24
Visualization in Data Science: Challenges and Opportunities
Key |
PDF
Celebrating 30 Years of ICG, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, 2023-06-12
Spatial Omics Visualizations: Lessons Learned from Networks and Maps
Key |
PDF
BioVis@VIS, IEEE VIS, New Orleans, USA (virtual), 2021-10-25.
Opportunities for Understanding Semantics of User Interactions
Key |
PDF
MLUI 2021: Machine Learning from User Interactions for Visualization and Analytics, IEEE VIS, New Orleans, USA (virtual), 2021-10-24.
What is Data Visualization and Why Do We Care About it for Biomedical Applications?
Key |
PDF
May Institute, Computation and statistics for mass spectrometry and proteomics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA, 2019-05-06.
Invited Talks
reVISit: A Toolking for Data Visualization Experiments
Key |
PDF
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA 2025-01-13.
The reVISit User Study Platform and Applications in Studying Misinformation
Key |
PDF
MIT CSAIL HCI Seminar, Cambridge, MA, USA 2024-12-13.
A Hodgepodge of Visualization Research: Provenance, User Studies, Misinformation
Key |
PDF
Department of Informatics Colloquium, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024-10-03.
Media and Information Technology (MIT) Seminar, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden, 2024-06-03.
Visualization in Oncological Data Science Now and in the Future: From Cancer Cell Microscopy to Reproducible Visual Analysis
Key |
PDF
Oncological Data Science Symposium, ODSi, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Utah, 2023-02-28
Empirical Evaluation of Complex Interactive Visualization Techniques
Video |
Key |
PDF
SCI VIS Seminar, University of Utah, USA, 2022-08-31.
Institute for Computer Graphics, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2022-06-03.
Literate Visualization: Making Visual Analysis Sessions Reproducible and Reusable
Video |
Key |
PDF
Visualization Summer School of Zhejiang University, China (virtual), 2022-07-07.
VRVis Zentrum für Virtual Reality und Visualisierung, Vienna, Austria, 2022-03-24.
Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, 2021-11-11.
Séminaire LIRIS, CNRS / INSA Lyon / Université Lyon 1 & 2 / École Centrale de Lyon, Lyon, France, 2021-10-18.
Visualization of Biological Data - From Analysis to Communication, Dagstuhl Seminar, Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany, 2021-10-04.
Datavisyn Public Lecture Series, datavisyn, Linz, Austria, 2021-07-02.
ICG Lab Talk, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria, 2021-06-15.
Departmental Seminar, Department of Computer Science, City University London, London, UK (virtual), 2020-11-17.
Goldman Sachs Tech Expo, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2020-07-24.
Utah Center for Data Science Seminar, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2020-01-06.
Spatial Omics Visualizations: Lessons Learned from Networks and Maps
Key |
PDF
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, BCB Seminar Series, 2021-12-09.
Driving Scientific Discovery with Interactive Visual Data Analysis
Key |
PDF
Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2021-10-04
Institute for Science and Technology (IST) Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria, 2020-02-25.
A Framework for Creative Visualization-Opportunities Workshops
PDF
NIH-NCI Workshop on Accelerating Cancer Research through User-Centered Software Design, Washington, DC, USA, 2019-01-07.
Enabling Scientific Discovery through Interactive Visual Data Analysis
Key |
PDF
Adobe, Lehi, UT, USA, 2019-04-10.
Lucid Software, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2019-03-12.
Goldman Sachs Tech Expo, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2017-06-28.
Department Of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2017-04-06.
Walmart, Tech Tuesday, Bentonville, AK, USA, 2017-02-07.
Marth Lab, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2016-08-25.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA, 2016-07-01.
Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2016-03-30.
Camp Lab, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2015-11-23.
Layout Adaption Strategies for Visualizing Multivariate Networks
Key |
PDF
University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2018-06-18.
Lineage: Visualizing Multivariate Clinical Data in Genealogy Graphs
Key |
PDF
NIH-NCI Workshop on Accelerating Cancer Research through User-Centered Software Design, Washington, DC, USA, 2019-01-07.
Genome Rounds, University of Utah, SLC, UT, USA, 2018-08-24.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah, SLC, UT, USA, 2018-06-05.
BioIT World Conference & Expo, Boston, MA, USA, 2018-05-17.
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2018-05-16.
Visualizing Biological Data: Pathway Graphs, Genealogies, and Alternative Splicing
Key |
PDF
Helmholtz Diabetes Center, Munich, Germany, 2018-10-29.
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix, AZ, USA, 2018-08-14.
Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2017-11-17.
Merck Research Laboratories, Boston, MA, USA, 2017-06-15.
Department Of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 2017-06-14.
Enabling Scientific Discovery through Interactive Visual Data Analysis
PPT |
PDF
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2015-08-07.
Adobe Research, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2015-04-06.
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2015-03-26.
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 2014-12-03.
University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, 2014-11-03.
UpSet: Visualization of Intersecting Sets
PPT |
PDF
Data Ventures, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2015-04-23.
BioIT World Conference & Expo, Boston, MA, USA, 2015-04-22.
Tufts University, Sommerville, MA, USA, 2014-10-29.
Visual Data Analysis for Biology and Pharmacology
PPT |
PDF
PerkinElmer, Boston, MA, USA, 2014-11-05.
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2014-07-09.
Visualizing Relationships between Biological Pathways
PPT |
PDF
Drug Discovery on Target Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 2014-10-08.
BioIT World Conference & Expo, Boston, MA, USA, 2014-05-01.
DBMI, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 2014-04-17.
Visualization Approaches for Biomolecular Data
PPT |
PDF
Georgia Tech, School of Interactive Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2014-04-08.
University of Calgary, Department of Computer Science, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2014-02-13.
MIT CSAIL, Cambridge, MA, USA. 2013-04-12.
UMass Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA, 2013-11-06.
Visualizing Multi-Attribute Rankings & A Very Short Visualization Introduction
PPT |
PDF
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Strategic Data Project, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2014-03-07.
Data Visualization in Molecular Biology
PPT |
PDF
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2013-07-29.
enRoute: Dynamic Path Extraction from Biological Pathway Maps for Exploring Heterogeneous Experimental Datasets
PPT |
PDF
BioIT World Conference & Expo, Boston, MA, USA, 2013-04-10.
Visualizing Biological Data (VIZBI) 2013, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2013-03-20.
Symposium on Understanding Cancer Genomics through Information Visualization at Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan, 2013-02-22.
Visualizing Biomolecular Data with the Caleydo Framework
PDF
CBMI, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, 2011-08-12.
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge, UK, 2010-09-21.
European BioInformatics Institute (EBI), Cambridge, UK, 2010-09-20.
Caleydo: Visual Analysis of Biomolecular Data
VCBM 2010 Leipzig, Germany, 2010-07-02.
Caleydo and Visual Links
VRVis Research Company, Vienna, Austria. 2010-03-11.
Caleydo: Visualization of Gene Expression Data in the Context of Biological Processes
AUVA Research Center for Traumatology, Vienna, Austria, 2009-02-26.
Novel InfoVis Techniques Applied to Pathways and Gene Expression Data
Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, Graz University of Technology, Austria, 2008-07-10.
Paper Presentations
Persist: Persistent and Reusable Interactions in Computational Notebooks
Key |
PDF
EuroVis Conference, Odense, Denmark, 2024-05-29
StratomeX: Visual Analysis of Large-Scale Heterogeneous Genomics Data for Cancer Subtype Characterization
PDF
IEEE BioVis 2012, Seattle, Washington, USA, 2012-10-14.
EuroVis 2012, Vienna, Austria, 2012-06-07.
VisBricks: Multiform Visualization of Large, Inhomogeneous Data
PDF
IEEE InfoVis 2011, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 2011-10-26.
Visualizing the Effects of Logically Combined Filters
PDF
Information Visualization 2011, London, UK. 2011-07-14.
Comparative Analysis of Multidimensional, Quantitative Data
PDF
IEEE InfoVis 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Paper presentation, 2010-10-28.
Caleydo: Design and Evaluation of a Visual Analysis Framework for Gene Expression Data in its Biological Context
PacificVis 2010, Taipei, Taiwan. 2010-03-03.
Tutorials
Omics Visualization
Guest Lecture at Bio+Med+Vis, virtual, 2021-05-19.
Visualizing Multivariate Networks
Key |
PDF
Carolina Nobre, Marc Streit, and Alexander Lex
Companion Website
IEEE VIS 2019, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2019-10-20.
StratomeX & enRoute: Integrative Visualization with Caleydo
Nils Gehlenborg and Alexander Lex
Visualizing Biological Data (VIZBI), Cambridge, MA, USA, 2013-03-20.
Cancer Data Analysis with Caleydo StratomeX and enRoute
PPT |
PDF
Alexander Lex and Marc Streit
Symposium on Understanding Cancer Genomics through Information Visualization, Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan, 2013-02-22.
Connecting the Dots – Showing Relationships in Data and Beyond
PPT |
PDF
Marc Streit, Hans-Jörg Schulz, and Alexander Lex
Handout & References
VisWee, Seattle, WA, USA, 2012-10.
Panels
Is the need for systems hindering the development of Visual Analytics?
Panel: What is a Visual Analytics contribution, and how is it changing?, IEEE VIS, 2023-10-25.
Ethics, Reviewing and Discussion Culture at VIS
Panel: Is This (Panel) Good Enough for IEEE VIS?, IEEE VIS, 2022-10-21.
How Can We Ensure Fair Pay for Study Participants?
Panel: Wait…when did we sign up to be economists?, IEEE VIS, 2021-10-29.
Visualization Response in a Time of Pandemic
Panel at VisGuides: 3rd Workshop on the Creation, Curation, Critique and Conditioning of Principles and Guidelines in Visualization, IEEE VIS, 2020-10-25.
Teaching
Current PhD Students
Zach Cutler
| Visualization tools, Provenance, Storytelling
Khandaker Abrar Nadib
| Human Centered Computing, Visualization, Applied Data Science
Graduated PhD Students
Maxim Lisnic, PhD '25
Devin Lange
| Cell Microscopy Visualization, Cancer Cell Visualization, Identifying Falsification in Scientific Data
Kiran Gadhave, PhD '24
Haihan Lin, PhD '23, Now at Lucid Software
Jen Rogers, PhD '22, Now PostDoc at Tufts University
Carolina Nobre, PhD '20, Now Faculty at the University of Toronto
Christian Partl, PhD '18 (co-advised with Dieter Schmalstieg)
Former Students
Zoe Exelbert, BS '25
Luke Schreiber
| Data Visualization, Health Science
Ishrat Jahan Eliza
Sunny Siu, BS/MS '21
Shaurya Sahai, MS '21
Zach Cutler
| Visualization tools, Provenance, Storytelling
Pranav Rajan, B.S.'21
Hannah Bruns, BS '20
Max Marno, PhD rotation '20
Ilkin Safarli
Sai Varun, MS '20
Dylan Wootton, BS '19, Now PhD student at MIT
Shuvrajit Mukherjee
T Cameron Waller
Pranav Dommata, MS '18
Sahar Mehrpour, PhD rotation '17
Mengjiao Han, PhD rotation '17
Asmaa Aljuhani, PhD rotation '17
Annie Cherkaev, PhD rotation '17
Sunny Hardasani, MS '16
Anirudh Narasimhamurthy, MS '16
Michael Kern, MS '16
Murali Krishna Teja Kilari, MS '17
Sateesh Tata, MS '16
Roy Bastien, BS '16
Priyanka Parekh, BS '16
Shreya Singh, MS '15
Varsha Alangar, MS '15
Rasvan Iliescu, MS '14
Alain Ibrahim, MS '14
Tamar Rucham, MS '14
Gabriel Hase, MS '14
Conor Myhrvold, MS '14
Ran Sofia Hou, BS '13 (co-advised with Joe Blitzstein)
Thomas Geymayer, MS '12, BS '11 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Christian Partl, MS '12 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Michael Lafer, BS '10 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Hannes Plank, BS '11 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Jürgen Pillhofer, MS '10 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Michael Wittmayer, BS '09 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Helmut Pichlhöfer, BS '10 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Oliver Pimas, BS '10 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Bernhard Schlegl, MS '09 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Werner Puff, MS '10 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Christian Partl, BS '09 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Stefan Sauer, BS '09 (with D. Schmalstieg)
Courses
Applied Data Visualization | COMP 5960
Fall 2023, Fall 2024
https://www.dataviscourse.net/2023-applied/
Professional Development | CS 4011
Spring 2024
Human Centered Data Analysis | CS 6957
Spring 2023
Visualization for Data Science | CS 5630 / CS 6630
Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
https://dataviscourse.net
Introduction to Data Science | COMP 5360 / MATH 4100
Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021
https://datasciencecourse.net
Co-Instructor: Braxton Osting
Introduction to Data Science | CS 5963 / MATH 3900
Fall 2016
https://datasciencecourse.net
Co-Instructor: Braxton Osting
Visualization Seminar | CS 7942
Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Visualization | CS 171 (Harvard)
Spring 2015
https://www.cs171.org/2015/
BioVis | (JKU Linz)
Spring 2013
Selected Topics Computer Graphics | (TU Graz)
Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012
Press
TU Graz News, 2025
Alexander Lex: How can data be communicated more effectively?
SCI Insitute & @TheU, 2024
NSF-Funded Team Launches reVISit – Pioneering Open-Source Software for Visualization Research
Inside Science, 2017
How Math Can Help Geologists Discover New Minerals
The OpenHelix Blog, 2016
Video Tip of the Week: Pathfinder, for exploring paths through data sets
The OpenHelix Blog, 2014
Video Tip of the Week: UpSet about genomics Venn Diagrams?
The Harvard Crimson, 2014
Painting by the Numbers: Data Visualization
The Harvard Crimson, 2014
New Tool Makes Cancer Analysis More Accessible
Harvard Medical School News, 2014
Pattern Recognition: New visualization software uncovers cancer subtypes
GenomeWeb, 2014
Harvard TCGA Data Visualization Software Adds Tools to Better Characterize Disease Subtypes
The OpenHelix Blog, 2014
StratomeX for genomic stratification of diseases
Harvard SEAS News & Harvard Gazette, 2014
What's behind a #1 ranking?
Forbes, 2014
Harvard And DARPA Develop Software For Deconstructing Top 100 Rankings
Der Standard, 2014
Heimische Forscher machen die Dynamik hinter Rankings sichtbar
The OpenHelix Blog, 2014
Video Tip of the Week: Entourage and enRoute from the Caleydo team
Nature Methods, 2013
Data visualization: ambiguity as a fellow traveler
GEN - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, 2013
Pathway Analysis to Decipher Data
Harvard SEAS News, 2013
Celebrating minds dedicated to discovery
The OpenHelix Blog, 2010
Tip of the Week: Caleydo for gene expression and pathway visualization