John D. Hunter

John D. Hunter
Born(1968-08-01)August 1, 1968
Dyersburg, Tennessee
DiedAugust 28, 2012(2012-08-28) (aged 44)
Chicago, Illinois
EducationPrinceton University
University of Chicago
Known forMatplotlib
SpouseMiriam
Children3
Scientific career
FieldsNeurobiology
InstitutionsNumFOCUS Foundation

John D. Hunter (August 1, 1968 – August 28, 2012) was an American neurobiologist and the original author of Matplotlib.[1]

Biography

Hunter was brought up in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and attended The McCallie School. He graduated from Princeton University in 1990 and obtained a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Chicago in 2004.[2][3] In 2005, he joined TradeLink Securities as a Quantitative Analyst.[4] Later, he was one of the founding directors of NumFOCUS Foundation.[5]

Matplotlib

Hunter initially developed Matplotlib during his postdoctoral research in neurobiology to visualize electrocorticography (ECoG) data of epilepsy patients.[4] The open-source tool emerged as the most widely used plotting library for the Python programming language and a core component of the scientific Python stack, along with NumPy, SciPy and IPython.[6] Matplotlib was used for data visualization during the 2008 landing of the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars and for the creation of the first image of a black hole.[7][8]

Personal life

Hunter was diagnosed with malignant colon cancer and died from cancer treatment complications on August 28, 2012.[9][10][11] His memorial service was held at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel (also the location of his Ph.D. graduation) on October 1, 2012.[12] He was survived by his wife Miriam and three daughters: Clara, Ava, and Rahel.[13]

Awards

Two weeks after Hunter's death, the Python Software Foundation announced it had voted unanimously to create its Distinguished Service Award, intended as the foundation's highest honor,[14] and issued the first award to Hunter.[15][16]

Legacy

From 2013 onwards, the SciPy Conference has hosted the annual John Hunter Excellence in Plotting Contest in his honor, with a $1000 prize to continue the advancement of scientific plotting.[17]

References

  1. ^ Hunter, John D. "Matplotlib: A 2D graphics environment." Computing in science and engineering 9.3 (2007): 90-95.
  2. ^ "John D. Hunter '90". 21 January 2016.
  3. ^ Pardalos, P. M.; Sackellares, J. C.; Carney, P. R.; Iasemidis, L. D., eds. (2004). Quantitative neuroscience: models, algorithms, diagnostics, and therapeutic applications. Vol. 2. Springer Science & Business Media.
  4. ^ a b Kristian Hermansen (2012). Brown, A.; Wilson, G. (eds.). The architecture of open source applications. Vol. ii. Lulu.
  5. ^ "Minutes". NumFOCUS.org. May 16, 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-04-01. NumFOCUS First Minutes of Meeting
  6. ^ Sheppard, K. (2014). Introduction to Python for econometrics, statistics and data analysis. Selfpublished, University of Oxford, version, 2.
  7. ^ "Screenshots — Matplotlib 1.3.x documentation". matplotlib.org. Archived from the original on 2015-05-02. Retrieved 2015-05-12.
  8. ^ Akiyama, Kazunori; et al. (2019). "First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. III. Data Processing and Calibration". The Astrophysical Journal. 875 (1): L3. arXiv:1906.11240. Bibcode:2019ApJ...875L...3E. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab0c57.
  9. ^ "Google Groups". groups.google.com.
  10. ^ "Obituaries for September 9, 2012". 9 September 2012.
  11. ^ "University obituaries - The University of Chicago Magazine". mag.uchicago.edu.
  12. ^ "In Memoriam, John D. Hunter III: 1968-2012". blog.fperez.org.
  13. ^ "NumFOCUS Foundation -". numfocus.org. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
  14. ^ "PSF Distinguished Service Awards". Python.org.
  15. ^ "Announcing the 2012 Distinguished Service Award - John Hunter". pyfound.blogspot.in. 14 September 2012.
  16. ^ "Redirecting to Google Groups".
  17. ^ "Excellence in Plotting Contest - SciPy 2015 Conference". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-31.