Taking stock of visualization in scientific computing

In 1985, an education student entered the office of the administrative director of the new computer science department and sincerely asked the question,“What was the curriculum of your department like before computers?” This is a nonsensical question, similar in form to asking what life sciences were like before biology. In her defense, the student was conducting a survey of all academic departments on behalf of the President of Harvard University, and she only needed an answer to enter in the little box on her survey form. This was a survey to gauge the widespread impact of computer technology on domain sciences outside of the applied math and computer science community. When considering the impact of a discipline such as scientific and medical visualization, it may be instructive to ask a similar question. Drawing from my background in medical research and my history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I will explore volume rendering and graphics hardware as examples of areas where techniques and equipment have made continual and sustained advances. However, as we overcome significant challenges, we must look toward new frontiers, strengthening the mathematical foundations of our discipline and becoming more fluent in the domain sciences in order to better equip them with tools from our foundries.