John C Hart

John C Hart is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he serves as Director of Online and Professional Programs and Executive Associate Dean of the Graduate College. His expertise spans computer graphics, data visualization, and computational topology.

Hart earned his Ph.D. from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1991. His research has been funded by Adobe, AT&T, DARPA, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, NVIDIA, and the NSF, with industry collaborations in graphics hardware, visual effects, game development, and medical imaging.

• Coordinated scalable online education initiatives, including the Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) program on Coursera, now UIUC’s second-largest graduate program
• Authored key texts like "Real-Time Shading" and "Texturing and Modeling: A Procedural Approach"
• Executive producer of the documentary "The Story of Computer Graphics"

His "Data Visualization" MOOC has reached over 360,000 learners. Awards include the 2021 UIUC Award for Excellence in Online and Distance Teaching and the 2017 Big 10 Academic Leadership Program Fellowship.