John C. Anderson

I have 20 years of professional software development experience, including technology and team leadership, people management, and research contract management. My focus over the years has been in data visualization, data analysis techniques, and high-performance cross-platform computer graphics application development.

Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn.

Professional Experience

Google

Staff Software Engineer (May 2012 - Present)

I am currently the Tech Lead Manager for Google Earth products at Google. Our team is responsible for the Earth, Earth Pro, and Earth Studio client applications across Web, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. I am also the Tech Lead and co-founder of the 3D rendering engine used by all modern version of Google Earth, including Earth VR.

Makai Ocean Engineering

Computer Scientist (June 2009 - May 2012)

I was Group Leader of the Advanced Visualization and Computer Graphics Division of Makai Ocean Engineering. I led a small team of software engineers in the development of geospatial visualization software for viewing ocean and atmospheric data on a 3D globe. The software was specifically developed for analyzing US Navy ocean simulation data, and I was Principal Investigator on multiple government research contracts supporting its development.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Scholar Program (2002 - 2009)

Graduate-level research fellowship in Computer Science focused on 3D surface reconstruction and high-dimensional data visualization. Three undergraduate-level summer internships focused on software testing infrastructure and data integration frameworks.

Education

Ph.D. and Masters in Computer Science

University of California, Davis (2004 - 2009)Dissertation: Scientific visualization techniques for volume fraction data and function fieldsAdvisor: Prof. Kenneth I. Joy

I attended UC Davis, where I received my Masters and PhD in Computer Science, with a focus in computer graphics and scientific visualization. A research fellowship with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) allowed me to explore novel methods for high-quality 3D surface reconstruction; interactive methods for multi-dimensional data visualization; and, query-driven visualization.

B.S. in Computer Science
B.A. in History
Minor in Applied Mathematics

University of the Pacific (2000 - 2004)

I attended University of the Pacific, where I studied Computer Science, History, and Applied Mathematics. Multiple internships at LLNL motivated me to pursue my Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Publications

My research focus over the years has been scientific and geospatial data analysis and visualization.

I have (co-)authored roughly 15 journal and conference papers, 3 patents, and numerous presentations. Please see Google Scholar and LinkedIn for a complete list.

I completed my Ph.D. dissertation in Computer Science at UC Davis in 2009. I worked with Prof. Ken Joy in areas of surface reconstruction and interactive visualization of high-dimensional data.