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Dr. Cecilia R. Aragon Staff Scientist Visualization Group Computational Research Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (510) 486-4106  Dr. Cecilia R. Aragon is a Staff Scientist with the Visualization Group in the Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. She has worked in several areas of computer science research, publishing results in theoretical computer science, visualization, visual analytics, image processing, computer supported cooperative work, and human-computer interaction. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Aragon's early work was in theoretical computer science. With Raimund Seidel, she developed treaps, binary search trees in which each node has both a key and a priority, and randomized search trees, which use random priorities in treaps to achieve good average-case performance. With Johnson, McGeoch, and Schevon, she conducted the first extensive evaluation of the simulated annealing algorithm in combinatorial optimization problems. More recently, she has been working in computer supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction, and visualization and analytics with applications to scientific collaborations and large scientific data sets. She developed an airflow hazard indicator for helicopter pilots that increased their ability to land safely during simulated hazardous conditions. With Bailey, Poon, Runge, and Thomas, she developed Sunfall, a collaborative visual analytics system for supernova astrophysics. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences in both computer science and astrophysics. As of April 2008, her publications have been cited over 1300 times (per Google Scholar). She has won many awards for her work, and she is the current chair of the IEEE Computer Society's Entrepreneur and Pioneer Awards committee. The daughter of immigrants to the United States, Dr. Aragon also actively works to support women and minorities in computing. She is a founding member of Latinas in Computing and a member of the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). She has given numerous invited talks and keynote addresses to organizations supporting girls, women and minorities in science, computing and engineering. She enjoys mentoring and working with students of all ages. Her twenty-plus years of work experience include research, teaching, software development, and entrepreneurial and management experience. Prior to her current appointment, she was a computer scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Before that, she was the founder and CEO of a small aviation company, an airshow and test pilot, aerobatic champion, and medallist at the World Aerobatic Championships, the Olympics of aviation. She holds the record for shortest time from first solo in an airplane to membership on the United States Aerobatic Team (less than six years), and was also the first Latina to win a slot on the Team. She has won over 70 trophies in international, national, and regional aerobatic competitions at the Unlimited level. She has logged over 5,000 accident-free hours, flying airshows and competitions throughout the United States and in Europe. An active flight instructor since 1987, Aragon is a pioneer of "unusual attitude recovery training," where flight students are taught how to recover from emergency situations in flight. She was the founder of one of the first aerobatic and tailwheel flight schools in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. Aragon and her husband live in the San Francisco Bay Area with their two children. She enjoys reading, walking, flying, and being a soccer mom. Her Erdös number is 3. Contact InfoCecilia R. AragonComputational Research Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory One Cyclotron Road, MS 50F-1650 Berkeley, California 94720 (510) 486-4106 (tel) (510) 486-5812 (fax) Projects and Groups: http://snfactory.lbl.gov http://vis.lbl.gov NERSC Visual Analytics |
