An Unexpected Journey: A Curious Career in Shape Analysis
Dennis E. Slice is a professor in the Department of Scientific Computing at Florida State University and Honorarprofessor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vienna, Austria. He received his doctorate in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology at the College of Charleston. His work focuses on the development of theoretical and methodological issues in shape analysis, morphometrics, and on their application to real-world problems such as the fit and function of protective equipment and the development of tools and methods for forensic science. He has produced more than 100 scholarly works and is the manager and moderator for MORPHMET, the international mailing list for morphometrics. He has released in excess of 20 computer programs for use by the morphometrics community and has lectured and taught courses and workshops on shape analysis in 14 countries.
Abstract: The field of modern morphometrics grew up around me while in graduate school, and I was most fortunate during this period to be closely associated with the founders and leaders of the field. In this talk, I will indulge myself a bit and summarize some of the people and events that led me to the unlikely position of being in the right place at a propitious time to be part of this growing and increasingly important field. I will discuss some of the developments in shape analysis during my graduate career and the people who were involved and who influenced me. I will conclude with a summary of my post-graduate work in software and methodological development and applications, my outstanding students who are now making important contributions of their own, and speculate just a bit on the short-term advances of which I hope to be a part. Application areas to be visited include ecology and evolution, the analysis of clothing and protective apparel, and computational forensics.
This Provost’s Lecture, co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Department of Ecology and Evolution, and Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, will be held on Tuesday, October 24, at 4 pm in the Wang Center, Lecture Hall 1.
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