Katy Borner is Assistant Professor of Information Science at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science. She works on:

data mining and information visualization techniques to map the structure and dynamics of scientific disciplines. Large amounts of, e.g., publication, patent, and grant data are analyzed, correlated, and visualized to communicate the semantic space of researchers, publications, funding, etc.. The resulting visualizations can be utilized to objectively identify major research areas, experts, institutions, grants, publications, journals, etc. in a research area of interest. In addition, they can assist identify interconnections, the import and export of research between fields, the dynamics (speed of growth, diversification) of scientific fields, scientific and social networks, and the impact of strategic and applied research funding programs among others. This knowledge is not only interesting for funding agencies but also for companies, researchers, and society.

An example: A map of the top 50 "hot" words in the most highly cited PNAS articles from 1982-2001. Words appearing more often have larger circles, while the circle color and ring color identify when the word first appeared and when its popularity peaked, respectively. Credit: Ketan Mane and Katy Borner, Indiana University.