Plaisant Receives CMNS Dean’s Distinguished Research Scientist Award

Catherine Plaisant, a senior research scientist in UMIACS, has been honored with the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Science (CMNS) Dean’s Distinguished Research Scientist Award for her accomplishments in the field of human-computer interaction and information visualization.

The CMNS Dean’s Awards recognize outstanding members of the UMD community. Nominations are collected from students, faculty and staff.

Much of the work by Plaisant, who also serves as the associate director of research in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, involves research on the design and evaluation of novel user interfaces.

In a nomination letter for Plaisant, Ben Shneiderman, a Distinguished University Professor of computer science and a longtime UMIACS member, wrote: “Dr. Plaisant is an internationally respected research leader in human-computer interaction and information visualization with an admirable record of applications in digital libraries, transportation, health informatics, and digital humanities text mining. Her accomplishments span the development lifecycle with major work in requirements gathering, interface design, and rigorous evaluations.”

Plaisant and Shneiderman co-authored the 4th, 5th and 6th editions of “Designing the User Interface,” a major textbook on the topic of human-computer interaction. She was also elected to the ACM CHI Academy in 2016.

Plaisant will be formally recognized at the college’s Academic Festival on Friday, May 5 at 2 p.m. in the lobby of the Physical Sciences Complex.