Melanie Tory
(she/her/hers)
Professor of the Practice, Director of Data Visualization

Research interests
- Visualization
- Human–computer interaction
- Human–AI interaction
Education
- PhD in Visualization, Simon Fraser University — Canada
Biography
Melanie Tory is a professor of the practice and the director of data visualization research at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based at the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine.
Tory is currently part of the IEEE VIS Steering Committee, and has been published in IEEE VIS, IEEE TVCG, IEEE CG&A, and ACM CHI. Prior to joining Northeastern, she worked as a research scientist at Tableau Software.
Outside of work, Tory is passionate about the outdoors and enjoys hiking and kayaking.
Recent publications
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Rethinking Human-AI Collaboration in Complex Medical Decision Making: A Case Study in Sepsis Diagnosis
Citation: Shao Zhang, Jianing Yu, Xuhai Xu, Changchang Yin, Yuxuan Lu , Bingsheng Yao, Melanie Tory, Lace M. K. Padilla, Jeffrey M. Caterino, Ping Zhang , Dakuo Wang. (2024). Rethinking Human-AI Collaboration in Complex Medical Decision Making: A Case Study in Sepsis Diagnosis CHI, 445:1-445:18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642343 -
Struggles and Strategies in Understanding Information Visualizations
Citation: Maryam Rezaie, Melanie Tory, Sheelagh Carpendale. (2024). Struggles and Strategies in Understanding Information Visualizations IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph., 30, 3035-3048. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2024.3388560 -
Heuristics for Supporting Cooperative Dashboard Design
Citation: Vidya Setlur, Michael Correll, Arvind Satyanarayan, Melanie Tory. (2024). Heuristics for Supporting Cooperative Dashboard Design IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph., 30, 370-380. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3327158 -
Investigating the Visual Utility of Differentially Private Scatterplots
Citation: Liudas Panavas, Tarik Crnovrsanin, Jane Lydia Adams, Jonathan R. Ullman, Ali Sarvghad, Melanie Tory, Cody Dunne. (2024). Investigating the Visual Utility of Differentially Private Scatterplots IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph., 30, 5370-5385. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3292391 -
Untidy Data: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Tables
Citation: Bartram, Lyn, Michael Correll, and Melanie Tory. "Untidy data: The unreasonable effectiveness of tables." IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, (2021). -
The Unmet Data Visualization Needs of Decision Makers within Organizations
Citation: Evanthia Dimara, Harry Zhang, Melanie Tory, and Steven Franconeri, The Unmet Data Visualization Needs of Decision Makers within Organizations, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2021.