The Theory and Application on Diagrams: An International Conference Series

Steering Committee

The Diagrams steering committee contains experts from a variety of backgrounds, reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of the conference.

The Steering Committee is responsible for:

  • choosing the chairs, and location, of Diagrams conferences
  • providing guidance to Diagrams conference organizers, on topics such as the reviewing process
  • publicizing the conference to diverse communities
  • maintaining the Diagrams series website and mailing list
  • financial aspects of the conference series
  • maintaining the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee membership is as follows:

  • In each even numbered year, the General Chair, Senior Program Chair, Co-Program Chairs and Local Chairs of the current Diagrams conference are invited to join the Steering Committee immediately after the conference has run.
  • In each odd numbered year, the Steering Committee will hold an election for one elected place. Nominations should be made, and seconded, by the members of the Steering Committee or the most recent Program Committee (i.e. from the previous year). It is the responsibility of the nominator to ensure that the nominee is willing to stand for election. Self-nominations are not permitted. If no nominations are received then no election will take place. The electorate comprises the current Steering Committee and the Program Committee members of the most recent conference. The elected place shall be filled by single transferrable vote. In the event of a tie, the Steering Committee Chair has the casting vote.
  • In each odd numbered year, the Steering Committee has the right to co-opt up to one person to join the Steering Committee. The choice of co-opted person, if any, will be made to ensure that the right balance of expertise and experience is held by the Steering Committee. Normally, this person will be selected from the most recent Program Committees.
  • For the above all terms are for six years and multiple terms are permitted.
  • One member of the Steering Committee will be assigned by the Steering Committee Chair to direct the online presence, duties to include maintaining the conference series’ web site and mailing list.

Term and Election Process for the Steering Committee Chair:

  1. A member of the Steering Committee shall be elected as Chair immediately after the conference has been held. They will hold the position for four years and until the completion of the election for a new Chair. The election is to take place immediately after the last Diagrams conference during their tenure. Their term of membership on the Steering Committee is automatically extended for another two years after the end of their tenure as Chair.
  2. The existing chair shall be responsible for seeking nominations for the position of chair and for running the election, unless they are nominated, in which case they should seek another member of the steering committee to run the election. Self-nominations are permitted. Nominators are responsible for ensuring nominees wish to be nominated.
  3. The electorate comprises the current Steering Committee. Voting is by single transferable vote. In the event of a tie, the current Chair will get the casting vote but may not at that stage vote for themselves.
  4. If the Chair leaves the position during their tenure, then this will trigger an election for a new Chair who will hold the position until two Diagrams conferences have been completed during their role.

19 October 2021

Steering Committee Members

The current members are all listed below, together with the dates of their current term.

Amirouche Moktefi (Steering Committee Chair) (2018-2026)

I am a Lecturer in Philosophy and member of the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. My areas of interest include the history of logic diagrams. I also study the role of diagrams in mathematical reasoning. In particular, I approach diagrams as scientific instruments and I investigate the role of imagination and rules in their construction and manipulation.

Amrita Basu (2021 – 2026)

I am the Director of the School of Cognitive Science at Jadavpur University. My research interests lie in exploring the neural mechanisms of language processing, illusion perception, complexity processing in the visual and auditory modalities. My interest in diagrams stems from the urge to explore the neural basis of diagram processing.

Francesco Bellucci (2022-2028) 

I am Associate Professor at the Department of the Arts of the University of Bologna, where I teach semiotics and philosophy of communication. My areas of interest include the history of logic, the theory of semiotics, the philosophy of language, and diagrammatic reasoning.

Reetu Bhattacharjee (2024-2030) 

I am a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Münster, Germany. My areas of interest include Mathematical Logic, Non-Monotonic Logic, Numerical Syllogism, Graph Theory, Set Theory, Belief Revision, the History and Philosophy of Logic (particularly Pacius, Euler, Schopenhauer, Venn, and Peirce), and Multimodal Communication. My work primarily involves investigating the cognitive aspects of diagrams and gestures in various branches of logic. I also work on developing different non-classical logic systems based on diagrams.

Leonie Bosveld de Smet (2020 – 2026)

I am an Assistant Professor in the Information Science Department at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. My research background is in the formal semantics of natural languages, but my switch from the department of Romance Languages to Information Science led me to get interested in information visualization. Since 2004, my research interests have been in production and comprehension of static schematic diagrams of different data. I prefer to work with data related to language. I like to do research in collaboration with graduate students, and to set up research projects with companies to investigate the benefits of the use of visualizations for internal and external communication purposes.

Paolo Bottoni (2022-2028) 

I am a Full Professor of Computer Science at Sapienza University, Italy. My research interests are in formal methods; model-driven development for visual languages and interactive systems; and in multimedia applications for digital annotation and cultural heritage, on which I have published more than 200 publications and participated in several national and international projects. 

Jean-Michel Boucheix (2017-2028)

Richard Burns (2016 – 2022; 2022 – 2028)

I am an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at West Chester University in the US. My primary research interests are in the disciplines of machine learning, artificial intelligence, data mining, and natural language processing. Most recently, my applied research has investigated the usage and characteristics of information graphics in popular media and how graphic designers can specifically design visualizations in such a way that aids the comprehension of some desired parts of the graphic.

Peter Chapman (2018 – 2026)

I am a Lecturer in Computing at Edinburgh Napier University. I work on both logical aspects of diagrams, and their effectiveness via empirical evaluation. In particular, I study mechanisms for visualising set-based data, including Euler and linear diagrams. I also maintain an interest in Structural Proof Theory, which was the focus of my PhD.

James Corter (2020 – 2026)

James E. Corter is Professor of Statistics and Education and Chair of the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests span topics in education, psychology and statistics, including the role of diagrams in statistical reasoning and probability problem solving, tree and graph models of proximity data, educational assessment, judgment and decision making, human learning, and the psychology of collaboration.

Valeria Giardino (2020 – 2028)

Valeria Giardino is a confirmed researcher in philosophy at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), affiliated to the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris. Her main research interest is the role of non linguistic representations in reasoning, science and mathematics in particular. She has been working on the practice of mathematics, with particular attention to the use of cognitive artifacts such as diagrams and notations, and on the cognitive bases of mathematical knowledge, in connection to related research in cognitive science. Her approach has also brought her more recently towards gesture studies and mathematical education.

Mikkel Willum Johansen (2024-2030) 

Cathy Legg (2021 – 2026)

I am a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Deakin University. I received my PhD from Australian National University, where my thesis (“Modes of Being”) concerned Charles Peirce’s philosophical realism. After a spell of hands-on ontological engineering in 2001-3, I returned to academia where my current research bridges philosophy of language, semiotics, logic and philosophy of mathematics, pragmatism and AI, with a side interest in ‘cat metaphysics’.

Jens Lemanski (2024-2030) 

Sven Linker (2021-2028)

I am Lecturer in Computing at Lancaster University Leipzig in Germany. My research interests lie in representations of space, their properties and their possible use. In particular, I am interested in how spatial relations may be used for diagrammatic visualisations of both classical and non-classical logical reasoning. Furthermore, I work on the verification of complex cyber-physical systems, and emergent properties of distributed computer systems.

Emmanuel Manalo (2016-2018; 2021-2030)

I am a Professor at the Graduate School of Education of Kyoto University in Japan. At the time of writing this brief bio, I am also Co-Editor in Chief of the journal, Thinking Skills and Creativity. Broadly speaking, my research focuses on the promotion of effective learning and instructional strategies, including the linking of different dimensions and strands of learning, and the cultivation of various thinking competencies such as critical thinking and metacognition. A large proportion of the research I do is about self-constructed diagrams – their applications in problem solving, communication, thinking, and learning; and methods for promoting their spontaneous, appropriate, and effective use.

Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen (2020 – 2026)

Marika Proover (2020 – 2026)

Daniel Raggi (2021 – 2026)

I am a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. I research logic and reasoning, with a focus on their computational aspects. My main interest is in understanding how we reason, what makes reasoning effective, and how creative reasoning is achieved. I believe that understanding a process means being able to realise it computationally. Thus, I use tools such as interactive theorem provers to test my ideas. I did my PhD on mathematical proofs that involve a change of representation, and I am currently working on developing a more general approach to understanding the structure and transformations of representations.

Francesco Sapio (2022-2028) 

Petrucio Viana (2024-2030) 

I am an associate professor of mathematics and a member of the Department of Analysis at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. My areas of interest are combinatorics and logic, including reasoning with diagrams. More specifically, in this area, I focus my research on the combinatorial and logical aspects of diagrammatic systems and on the effective use of diagrams to express and prove results in areas of mathematics such as Set Theory and Group Theory. In general, I approach diagrams as logical formulas and investigate the role they can play in the discovery and justification of mathematical results.

Previous Steering Committee Members

Michael Anderson, Dave Barker-Plummer, Alan Blackwell, B. Chandrasekaran, Peter Cheng, Phil Cox, Richard Cox, Aidan Delaney, Tim Dwyer, George Furnas, Ashok Goel, Volker Haarslev, Mary Hegarty, John Howse, Roland Hubscher, Mateja Jamnik, John Lee, Mark Minas, Kim Marriott, Bernd Meyer, Hari Narayanan, Ian Oliver, Beryl Plimmer, Helen Purchase, Peter Rodgers, Stephanie Schwartz, Atsushi Shimojima, Gem Stapleton, Nik Swoboda, and Yuri Uesaka.