{"685441":{"#nid":"685441","#data":{"type":"news","title":"School of IC Honors Decorated Professor with Namesake Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne word comes up more often than others when describing John Stasko \u2014 kindness.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko achieved a great deal during his 36 years as a professor at Georgia Tech and made significant contributions to data visualization research and innovations. He is a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/regents-professor-named-acm-fellow\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFellow of the ACM\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and IEEE and received the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/awards-roundup-regents-professor-earns-ieee-vgtc-lifetime-achievement-award\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Community Lifetime Achievement Award\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn all those years, none of his students or colleagues could recall a moment when he didn\u2019t demonstrate kindness.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHe supported me in fleshing out my ideas into a Ph.D. dissertation,\u201d said \u003Cstrong\u003EDean Jerding\u003C\/strong\u003E (CS Ph.D. 1997), one of Stasko\u2019s former students. \u201cHe was always calm and communicated any criticism in a very positive way. He never said I had a dumb idea. He was always encouraging, and he redirected you with his input.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Interactive Computing bid farewell to Stasko on Thursday, following his official retirement in July.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring the event, \u003Cstrong\u003EShaowen Bardzell\u003C\/strong\u003E, School of IC chair and professor, announced the establishment of the John Stasko Award for Teaching Excellence in Stasko\u2019s honor. Bardzell said the award will be given each year to as many as \u201ctwo faculty members in the School of Interactive Computing whose teaching and mentoring channel John\u2019s passion and care for our students.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can be effective while being nice, and you can be heard while being quiet and thoughtful,\u201d said \u003Cstrong\u003EKeith Edwards\u003C\/strong\u003E, a professor in the School of IC who was one of Stasko\u2019s first students. \u201cHe\u2019s the same even-keeled, thoughtful person as he was when I first knew him. He\u2019s very generous. If it hadn\u2019t been for John, I think there\u2019s a chance I would\u2019ve fallen through the cracks when I was looking for an advisor at Georgia Tech. I\u2019m very fortunate he took me on.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENew College, New Blood\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko came to Georgia Tech in 1989 fresh off completing his Ph.D. in computer science at Brown University. That was a year before the establishment of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. The computer science program was administered by the School of Information and Computer Science, which was housed in the College of Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was exciting because we were igniting computer science at Georgia Tech, and there were a lot of young faculty like me who were brand new, right out of college,\u201d Stasko said. \u201cThere was this spirit of working together and wanting to make something great here.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko said when the College of Computing was established in 1990, Georgia Tech ranked outside the top 20 of U.S. News and World Report\u2019s computer science program rankings.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany new faculty members like Stasko were interested in data visualization, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction. Georgia Tech quickly bolstered its computer science reputation by positioning itself at the forefront of those emerging fields with the creation of the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of the top five to 10 schools like Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley were very strong in the traditional subareas of computer science,\u201d Stasko said. \u201cI think it helped us to develop a strength in HCI, graphics and visualization. We were one of the earliest to embrace those, so it made it easier for us to shine. U.S. News and World Report had a new sub-ranking called Graphics and HCI, and we were ranked No. 1 very early on. That really helped us.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGrowing as a Mentor\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko credits \u003Cstrong\u003EJim\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EFoley\u003C\/strong\u003E, the first director of GVU, who now has a scholarship named in his honor for outstanding graduate students, as the model for how to conduct oneself as a teacher.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cJim was the most wonderful mentor I could\u2019ve had,\u201d Stasko said. \u201cHe was a famous professor, and everyone in computer science around the country knew him, but he was always so humble, and he would meet all the new junior faculty and want to help us get going. He allowed us to shine.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko became most well-known for his research, particularly for his invention of Jigsaw in 2007. Jigsaw is a visualization algorithm that can create a visual index of a large document collection.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt could help an analyst see the story that\u2019s spread across 1,500 different documents about a police case, for example,\u201d he said. \u201cOr maybe they were reviews of a product that you wanted to learn about, or which car or which TV you should buy without having to read 1,500 reviews. We used early machine learning methods to analyze the text and created a suite of different visualizations communicating that analysis.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to his research, Stasko taught an intro to JavaScript course for 20 years to thousands of Tech students. Though it wasn\u2019t required of him to teach it, he said he enjoyed interacting with incoming first-year students because it \u201chelped keep me feeling young.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2007, Stasko joined the faculty of the newly created School of Interactive Computing. He served as the interim chair of the school from 2021 to 2022, and he was also named Regents\u2019 Professor by the University System of Georgia in 2021.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELeaving a Legacy\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday, the College of Computing has the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/news.gatech.edu\/news\/2025\/09\/23\/georgia-tech-secures-multiple-no-1-rankings?utm_source=newsletter\u0026amp;utm_medium=email\u0026amp;utm_content=Multiple%20Programs%20Named%20No.%201%20in%20US%20News%20Rankings\u0026amp;utm_campaign=Daily%20Digest%20-%20Sept.%2023%2C%202025\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENo. 5 undergraduate and No. 6 graduate computer science program\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E in the U.S. and is the largest college on Georgia Tech\u2019s campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m not sure any other CS program in the country has had that kind of jump like we have had over the past 35 years,\u201d Stasko said. \u201cThe higher you go, the harder it is to jump even one spot.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think we knew that (the College) was going to grow and that was part of the plan. I\u2019m not sure I would\u2019ve envisioned we\u2019d ever be 150 to 200 faculty in the college, but we could all see computer science was going to be a crucial part of society going forward.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStasko will continue to be a part of the School of IC as Professor Emeritus. His final student, Alexander Bendeck, finishes his Ph.D. in 2026.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBendeck will be the 25th student Stasko has advised and graduated over his career. He said he never had the funding to run a large lab, but that allowed him to invest in the students he took under his wing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI often found some unconventional Ph.D. students,\u201d Stasko said. \u201cSome of my early students started in very different areas of computer science. I\u2019ve looked for diamonds in the rough.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI see some of them now with their families and they make me feel old because they have kids who are in college now. But they\u2019ve done well. I think half of my students have gone into academia, and the other half into industry. I\u2019m very proud in all that they\u2019ve achieved, both personally and professionally.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor \u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Stasko\u003C\/strong\u003E retired after a distinguished 36-year career at Georgia Tech, during which he was a key figure in the rise of the College of Computing and made significant contributions to data visualization. Stasko was widely celebrated by students and colleagues for his kindness, humility, and thoughtful mentorship. To honor his contributions and spirit, the School of Interactive Computing established the \u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Stasko Award for Teaching Excellence\u003C\/strong\u003E, an annual award for faculty members who embody his passion and dedication to students.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Interactive Computing established the John Stasko Award for Teaching Excellence to honor the decorated professor for his 36-year career marked by significant contributions to data visualization and a legacy of kindness."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2025-10-01 17:40:15","changed_gmt":"2025-10-09 01:31:07","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-09-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-09-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"678236":{"id":"678236","type":"image","title":"IMG_4583.jpg","body":null,"created":"1759340427","gmt_created":"2025-10-01 17:40:27","changed":"1759340427","gmt_changed":"2025-10-01 17:40:27","alt":"John Stasko","file":{"fid":"262234","name":"IMG_4583.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/10\/01\/IMG_4583.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/10\/01\/IMG_4583.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":102941,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/10\/01\/IMG_4583.jpg?itok=_d9HzgWm"}}},"media_ids":["678236"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"}],"keywords":[{"id":"38921","name":"data visualization"},{"id":"194701","name":"go-resarchnews"},{"id":"40191","name":"faculty retirement"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}