Thomas Ertl is a retired professor of computer science at the University of Stuttgart. Until 2023, he led a research group in the Visualization and Interactive Systems Institute (VIS) and was a co-director of the Visualization Research Center (VISUS). He received a MSc in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Tuebingen. From 2015-2018 he served as Vice President of Research of the University of Stuttgart and from 2019-2023, he was the spokesperson of the SimTech Cluster of Excellence. His research interests include visualization, computer graphics and human computer interaction in general with a focus on volume rendering, flow and particle visualization, parallel and hardware accelerated rendering, large datasets and interactive exploration, visual analytics of text collections and social media with applications to geographic information and digital humanities. Thomas Ertl served on numerous program committees and as a papers co-chair for most conferences in the field. From 2007-2010 he was Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Graphics (TVCG) and in 2011/2012 he served as Chairman of the Eurographics Association. He received the Outstanding Technical Contribution Award, the Distinguished Career Award, and the  Medal of the Eurographics Association as well as the Technical Achievement Award and the Visualization Career Award of the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee. In 2007 he was elected as a Member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He received Honorary Doctorates from the Vienna University of Technology and from the University of Magdeburg.

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