RENCI People with Rachael Brady

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Watch entire video or click on any question below:

Q: You have degrees in math, physics and statistics. How did you become interested in these fields? Did you have any role models who inspired you to enter a field where women are still a small minority?

Q: You have established a reputation in scientific visualization. How did you get interested in that field and what do you see as the role of visualization in scientific research and discovery?

Q: Tell us about some of your accomplishments in visualization over the years and how you landed at Duke?

Q: Describe the Visualization Technology Group at Duke, which you lead.

Q: Tell us a little about the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment.

Q: Some of your current work focuses on using virtual reality/visualization in fields well beyond the sciences. Can you tell us about, for example, Visions of the Underworld and share your thoughts on the use of visualization in the arts and humanities?

Q: Women are still relatively rare in your field. How can science, math and engineering fields attract more women?

Q: Do you have any advice for young people looking to enter a science/math/engineering field, including visualization?

Biography

Rachael Brady specializes in the use of technology to aid data exploration and analysis. She promotes the use of visualization and virtual reality technologies for improved understanding of scientific data and human cognition. With nearly twenty-years of experience, she is a leader in the creation of facilities and development of solutions that combine statistical methods, digital image processing methods and visualization methods to provide insight into scientific questions. Brady is the founding director of the Visualization Technology Group at Duke University (vis.duke.edu), where she is responsible for the installation and operation of a 6-sided CAVE-like virtual reality theater. She is also actively involved with developing innovative cross-disciplinary research programs through her role as faculty advisor to the ISIS (interdisciplinary studies + information sciences) program (isis.duke.edu) and research director in the Visual Studies Initiative (visualstudies.duke.edu). In this capacity she has worked on art and engineering collaborations that have produced the FreeSpace, soundSense, Mix Tapestry, demonstration/performances, and the soundSpace exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science.