John D. Hunter

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

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

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. 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.
  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".
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