Dr. Avila received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989, 1990, and 1994, respectively. While at Stony Brook, she developed visualization techniques that were incorporated into a cranio-facial surgical planning system used at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Avila was one of two primary developers of the VolVis system for volume visualization, and her thesis was focused on the creation of global illumination models for volumetric data. Dr. Avila was also active in the area of hardware-assisted acceleration methods for volume rendering, and she worked closely with researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute to apply volume visualization to problems in neurobiology.

After completing a post-doctoral position at Stony Brook, Dr. Avila joined the General Electric Corporate Research and Development center in 1994. At GE, Lisa continued her work in the area of volume rendering, applying these methods to both medical and industrial data. She began working in the area of haptics, and she developed and patented algorithms for visualizing, modifying and feeling volumetric data. Working with GE Aircraft Engine, Lisa lead the development of a state-of-the-art application for exploration and analysis of large geometric databases.

Currently Dr. Avila is a technical contributor and Vice President of Kitware Inc., a small software company devoted to imaging, visualization, and computer graphics. Lisa is a principal developer of the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) software, having written the volume visualization chapter and accompanying software.

Dr. Avila is a member of the editorial board for the IEEE publication Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, has taught courses in volume visualization at both the ACM SIGGRAPH and IEEE Visualization conferences on a regular basis, has served on various conference committees,and is a reviewer for several technical conferences and journals.

Publications

W. J. Schroeder, L. S. Avila, K. M. Martin, W. Hoffman, C. Charles Law, The Visualization Toolkit User's Guide, ISBN 1-930934-05-X, Kitware, Inc. (2001).

H. Pfister, W.E. Lorensen, C. Bajaj, Kindlmann, W.J. Schroeder, L.S. Avila, K.M. Martin, Transfer Function Bake-Off, IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, 21(3), (May/June 2001).

W.J. Schroeder, L.S. Avila, W. Hoffman, Visualizing with VTK: A Tutorial, IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications, 20(5), (Sept/Oct 2000).

R. S. Avila and L. M. Sobierajski, A Haptic Interaction Method for Volume Visualization, Visualization `96 Proceedings, pp. 197-204, IEEE CS Press, (October 1996).

R. S. Avila and L. M. Sobierajski, Haptic Interaction Utilizing a Volumetric Representation, The First PHANToM User's Group Workshop, MIT, (September 1996).

L.M. Sobierajski and R.S. Avila, A Hardware Acceleration Method for Volumetric Ray Tracing, Visualization `95 Proceedings, IEEE CS Press, pp. 27-34 (November 1995).

L.M. Sobierajski, R.S. Avila, D.M. O'Malley, S. Wang, and A.E. Kaufman, Visualization of Calcium Activity in Nerve Cells, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, pp. 55-61 (July 1995).

L.M. Sobierajski and A.E. Kaufman, Volumetric Ray Tracing, 1994 Symposium on Volume Visualization, pp. 11-18 (October 1994).

R.S. Avila, T. He, L. Hong, A. Kaufman, H. Pfister, C. Silva, L. Sobierajski, and S. Wang, VolVis: A Diversified System for Volume Visualization, Visualization '94 Proceedings, IEEE CS Press, pp. 31-38 (October 1994).

R.S. Avila, L.M. Sobierajski, and A.E. Kaufman, Visualizing Nerve Cells, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, (September 1994).

L.M. Sobierajski, Global Illumination Models For Volume Rendering, Ph.D. Thesis, State University of New York at Stony Brook, August, 1994.

A.E. Kaufman and L.M. Sobierajski, Continuum Volume Display, pp. 171-202 in Computer Visualization, ed. R. Gallagher, CRC Press (1994).

B.J. Burbach, R.S. Avila, L.M. Sobierajski, A.E. Kaufman, and P.R. Adams, The Living and the Dead: Interactive Visualization of Nerve Cells, Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 19 (November 1993). Abstract 458.9

A. Kaufman, L.M. Sobierajski, R.S. Avila, and T. He, Navigation and Animation in a Volume Visualization System, pp. 64-74 in Models and Techniques in Computer Animation, ed. N.M Thalmann and D. Thalmann, Springer-Verlag (1993).

L. Sobierajski, D. Cohen, A. Kaufman, R. Yagel, and D. Acker, A Fast Display Method for Volumetric Data, The Visual Computer, 10(2), pp. 116-124 (1993).

R.S. Avila, L.M. Sobierajski, and A.E. Kaufman, Towards a Comprehensive Volume Visualization System, Visualization '92 Proceedings, IEEE CS Press, pp. 13-20 (October 1992).