SEMINAR @ SISSA, SBP, Mario Valle 11/12/06

[Barbara Corzani]

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STATISTICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR
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Dott. Mario Valle
Swiss National Supercomputing Centre 
(CSCS)

Title:
"Beyond Ball-and-Stick
In search of the perfect visualization tool for Chemistry"


Monday 11 December 2006  @ 11.00 a.m.


SISSA - Basement floor - room A

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Abstract:
Chemistry is a visual science, and data representation plays a central role in its discovery process.

An external observer could presume that the available chemistry visualization tools would be at the forefront regarding representation techniques and interaction methods.

Our survey of 20 widely available non-commercial molecular visualization tools shows instead a high uniformity of representation methods and a general imbalance toward visualization for presentation only.

But is it possible to find tools and techniques that support also the exploratory phase in the molecular dynamics, crystallographic and material science areas? Examples from the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre visualization group work with its chemistry users and ideas collected from current visualization research show that will be possible to move in the direction of better, if not perfect, visualization tools.