Leadership: National Visualization and Analytics Center (NVAC)

NVAC Leadership

Strong, decisive and experienced leadership is critical in the ability of the National Visualization and Analytics Center (NVAC™) to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in developing the tools to identify and prevent attacks. DHS has identified the leadership team to help in its mission to stop terrorism. The leadership team includes:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Dr. Charles McQueary, Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary for Science and Technology, joins Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Director Len Peters (left) in announcing the National Visualization and Analytics Center May 14, 2004.

Intelligence and information analysis are critical to reducing our vulnerability to terrorism and protecting our nation. With years of experience developing visual analytics tools for government and private clients, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) provides strong scientific leadership, and successful, innovative contributions to the field of visual analytics for homeland security, intelligence, and defense. PNNL is nationally and internationally recognized as the premier R&D laboratory in visual analytics with a broad talent base that has demonstrated the ability to transform fundamental science to solid solutions.

PNNL researchers have worked alongside analysts to bring fundamentally new analytical capabilities into their working environment. This critical interaction helps analysts learn the mechanics of creating new tools, as well as helping them fine-tune their process to take maximum advantage of new visual analytics capabilities. NVAC continues this strong collaboration of talent and tool development to provide high impact contributions in visualization analytics.

Two of PNNL’s innovative and widely used visualization tools, IN-SPIRE™ and Starlight™, are part of the suite of tools available for various users associated with NVAC. PNNL also anticipates many more revolutionary tools being developed and implemented as NVAC grows.

“Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation.”
~William Arthur Wood

NVAC Advisory Board

Along with PNNL, the NVAC Advisory Board provides leadership to the center and to the R&D Panel. The board is composed of representatives from DHS, other government agencies, academia, industry, and national laboratories. This group of advisors was instrumental in working with the R&D Agenda Panel to foster the development of the Research and Development Agenda for Visual Analytics.

R&D Agenda Panel

Led by PNNL and the NVAC Advisory Board, a multidisciplinary panel representing government, academia and industry developed a Research and Development Agenda for visual analytics. This new comprehensive agenda provides a roadmap for future R&D efforts in visual analytics and ensures that a continued stream of technology and innovative tools enter the hands of analysts and emergency responders. The roadmap was unveiled at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in February 2005, and IEEE will publish it as a book in spring 2005. National R&D Agenda

NVAC Director

Jim Thomas is director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Visualization and Analytics Center and a Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. With a career spanning 30 years of contributions in information technology, Thomas specializes in the research, design and implementation of innovative information and scientific visualization, multimedia and human computer interaction technology. At PNNL, he has established investment directions for information technology, led major technology initiatives, mentored staff and spearheaded several major research programs.

Thomas is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of information visualization. He has received several international science awards and been honored for transferring research technology to industry. Thomas sits on several national and international science and technology boards for universities, states and industry. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Thomas also was chair of ACM SIGGRAPH, former editor-in-chief for IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, and has chaired graphics and visualization conferences for both ACM and IEEE. He is on three editorial boards for journals and has presented more than 20 keynote talks at major conferences.

photo of Jim Thomas “Visual analytics are valuable because the tool helps to detect the expected, and discover the unexpected. Visual analytics combines the art of human intuition and the science of mathematical deduction to perceive patterns and derive knowledge and insight from them. With our success in developing and delivering new technologies, we are paving the way for fundamentally new tools to deal with the huge digital libraries of the future, whether for terrorist threat detection or new interactions with potentially life-saving drugs.”
~Jim Thomas, NVAC Director

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