New Villum Investigator at the Department

VILLUM FONDEN has selected Professor Niklas Elmqvist to become a Villum Investigator. With this honor comes a grant of DKK 38.8 million to set up the Center for Anytime & Anywhere Analytics (CA3) at Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University.

Professor Niklas Elmqvist is a highly recognized researcher in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and data visualization. He is currently a professor at University of Maryland, but will relocate to Aarhus University in July 2023, where he will start as a professor. His new CA3 center will bridge activities across the existing HCI research groups—CoCHI and UBI—at the department.

We are on the cusp of a new age of enlightenment in human history, one enabled by emerging mobile and immersive technology, radical advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the ready access to data collected anywhere and accessed everywhere.

With the prestigious Villum Investigator Grant, Niklas Elmqvist will establish Center for Anytime & Anywhere Analytics (CA3), which will promote a data-driven, immersive, and ubiquitous form of analytics where people are empowered to work together to make sense of massive data using the next generation of XR (eXtended Reality) technologies. The center will employ both PhD students and postdocs and is expected to attract young research talents from all over the world.

On 17 April 2023, the Villum Investigators will be celebrated at a ceremony at the VILLUM Window Collection in Søborg, which will be attended by the Minister for Higher Education and Science, Christina Egelund, among others.

Congratulations Niklas—we look forward to working with you!

About Niklas Elmqvist

Professor Niklas Elmqvist is a highly respected and influential researcher in the field of HCI and data visualization. He received his PhD in Computer Science from Chalmers University of Technology in 2006. After graduation, he was a postdoctoral researcher at INRIA/LRI at Université Paris-Sud and Microsoft Research – INRIA Center as well as an assistant professor at Purdue University before joining the faculty at University of Maryland in 2014. His research focuses on developing new techniques and tools for visualizing and interacting with large, complex data sets, with a particular emphasis on applications in scientific research and data analysis. Elmqvist's research has been published in many top-tier conferences and journals in the field, and he has received numerous awards and honors for his work. More information at: https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/

About Villum Investigator Programme

The Villum Investigator Grant is a prestigious research grant awarded to outstanding researchers in Denmark by the Villum Foundation. The grant provides long-term funding to support research projects that have the potential to make significant contributions to science and technology. The grant is highly competitive, and the selection process is rigorous. Applicants must have a strong track record of research excellence and a well-developed research proposal that outlines their research objectives, methods, and expected outcomes.

In 2023, 11 investigators were selected from among 52 applicants after a thorough evaluation process in which internationally recognised researchers in VILLUM FONDEN’s working group for technical and natural sciences selected 22 applicants for independent peer review, interviews, and subsequent approval by the foundation’s board. The selected researchers represent departments at the University of Copenhagen, DTU, the University of Southern Denmark, and Aarhus University. See full announcement from VILLUM FONDEN at https://veluxfoundations.dk/en/villum-investigators-2023