Tao Ju

Tao Ju
EducationRice University (PhD, 2005)
Tsinghua University (BS, 2000; BA, 1999)
Known forResearch on mesh processing, skeleton computation, barycentric coordinates, and geometric computing in biomedicine
Scientific career
FieldsComputer graphics, geometric modeling, biomedical image analysis
WorkplacesWashington University in St. Louis

Tao Ju is a computer scientist and professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. His research is in computer graphics, particularly geometric modeling, mesh processing, shape understanding, and biomedical image analysis.

Education

Ju received a BA from Tsinghua University in 1999 and a BS from Tsinghua University in 2000. He earned a PhD from Rice University in 2005.

Career

Ju joined Washington University in St. Louis in 2005 and became a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He served as vice dean of research for the McKelvey School of Engineering from 2016 to 2021. He has also served as Washington University's ambassador to Tsinghua University for the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

Research

Ju's research concerns computer graphics, geometric modeling, and biomedical image analysis. His work includes algorithms for surface reconstruction, repair and topological simplification of geometric models, skeleton and medial-axis computation, generalized barycentric coordinates, and geometric methods for biomedical image analysis.

In surface reconstruction, Ju co-authored the 2002 paper "Dual Contouring of Hermite Data", which described a method for contouring signed grids tagged with Hermite data. Later work addressed reconstruction from non-parallel curve networks and cross-sections, and variational reconstruction from point sets.

In model repair and topological simplification, Ju published "Robust Repair of Polygonal Models" in 2004 and co-authored work on topology repair of solid models using skeletons. He later co-authored a global optimization approach to topological simplification.

Ju has also worked on generalized barycentric coordinates. With Scott Schaefer and Joe Warren, he published "Mean Value Coordinates for Closed Triangular Meshes", which generalized mean value coordinates from two-dimensional polygons to closed triangular meshes. His later work in this area included cubic mean value coordinates.

In biomedical and biological image analysis, Ju has co-authored work on protein structure modeling from cryo-electron microscopy density maps, a digital atlas of the mouse brain transcriptome, and computational methods for plant root phenotyping from three-dimensional images. He has also co-authored interdisciplinary work applying geometric and imaging methods to computer security and archaeology.

Awards and recognition

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tao Ju". McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis.
  2. ↑ "Ju, Turner named vice deans in Engineering" (PDF). Engineering Momentum. School of Engineering & Applied Science, Washington University in St. Louis. Fall 2016.
  3. ↑ "Tao Ju". McDonnell Scholars Academy.
  4. ↑ "McDonnell International Scholars Academy Brochure" (PDF). McDonnell International Scholars Academy. Washington University in St. Louis.
  5. 1 2 Ju, Tao; Losasso, Frank; Schaefer, Scott; Warren, Joe (2002). "Dual contouring of Hermite data". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 21 (3): 339–346. doi:10.1145/566654.566586.
  6. 1 2 Ju, Tao (2004). "Robust repair of polygonal models". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 23 (3): 888–895. doi:10.1145/1015706.1015815.
  7. 1 2 Zhou, Qian-Yi; Ju, Tao; Hu, Shi-Min (2007). "Topology repair of solid models using skeletons". IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 13 (4): 675–685. Bibcode:2007ITVCG..13..675Z. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2007.1015. PMID 17495328.
  8. ↑ Ju, Tao; Baker, Matthew L.; Chiu, Wah (2007). "Computing a family of skeletons of volumetric models for shape description". Computer-Aided Design. 39 (5): 352–360. doi:10.1016/j.cad.2007.02.006. PMC 2084352. PMID 18449328.
  9. ↑ Yan, Yajie; Letscher, David; Ju, Tao (2018). "Voxel cores: Efficient, robust, and provably good approximation of 3D medial axes". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 37 (4): A5. doi:10.1145/3197517.3201396.
  10. 1 2 Ju, Tao; Schaefer, Scott; Warren, Joe (2005). "Mean value coordinates for closed triangular meshes". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 24 (3): 561–566. doi:10.1145/1073204.1073229.
  11. 1 2 Baker, Matthew L.; Ju, Tao; Chiu, Wah (2007). "Identification of secondary structure elements in intermediate-resolution density maps". Structure. 15 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1016/j.str.2006.11.008. PMC 1810566. PMID 17223528.
  12. ↑ Liu, Lu; Bajaj, Chandrajit; Deasy, Joseph O.; Low, Daniel A.; Ju, Tao (2008). "Surface reconstruction from non-parallel curve networks". Computer Graphics Forum. 27 (2): 155–163. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8659.2008.01112.x. PMC 2733791. PMID 19718278.
  13. ↑ Huang, Zhiyang; Zou, Ming; Carr, Nathan; Ju, Tao (2017). "Topology-controlled reconstruction of multi-labelled domains from cross-sections". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 36 (4): 76. doi:10.1145/3072959.3073644.
  14. ↑ Huang, Zhiyang; Carr, Nathan; Ju, Tao (2019). "Variational implicit point set surfaces". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 38 (4): 124. doi:10.1145/3306346.3322994.
  15. ↑ Xia, Jianjun; Ju, Tao (2025). "Variational surface reconstruction using natural neighbors". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 44 (4): 85. doi:10.1145/3731191.
  16. ↑ Zeng, Dan; Chambers, Erin W.; Letscher, David; Ju, Tao (2020). "To cut or to fill: A global optimization approach to topological simplification". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 39 (6): 201. doi:10.1145/3414685.3417854.
  17. ↑ Li, Xian-Ying; Ju, Tao; Hu, Shi-Min (2013). "Cubic mean value coordinates". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 32 (4): 126:1–126:10. doi:10.1145/2461912.2461917.
  18. ↑ Carson, James P.; Ju, Tao; Lu, Hui-Chen; Thaller, Christina; Xu, Mei; Pallas, Sarah L.; Crair, Michael C.; Warren, Joe; Chiu, Wah; Eichele, Gregor (2005). "A digital atlas to characterize the mouse brain transcriptome". PLOS Computational Biology. 1 (4): e41. Bibcode:2005PLSCB...1...41C. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0010041. PMC 1215388. PMID 16184189.
  19. ↑ Zeng, Dan; Li, Mao; Jiang, Ni; Ju, Yiwen; Schreiber, Hannah; Chambers, Erin; Letscher, David; Ju, Tao; Topp, Christopher N. (2021). "TopoRoot: a method for computing hierarchy and fine-grained traits of maize roots from 3D imaging". Plant Methods. 17 (1): 127. Bibcode:2021PlMet..17..127Z. doi:10.1186/s13007-021-00829-z. PMC 8667396. PMID 34903248.
  20. ↑ Yu, Zhiyuan; Chang, Yuanhaur; Zhai, Shixuan; Deily, Nicholas; Ju, Tao; Wang, XiaoFeng; Jammalamadaka, Uday; Zhang, Ning (2023). "XCheck: Verifying integrity of 3D printed patient-specific devices via computing tomography". 32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23). USENIX Association. pp. 2815–2832.
  21. ↑ Frachetti, Michael D.; Berner, Jack; Liu, Xiaoyi; Henry, Edward R.; Maksudov, Farhod; Ju, Tao (2024). "Large-scale medieval urbanism traced by UAV-lidar in highland Central Asia". Nature. 634 (8036): 1118–1124. Bibcode:2024Natur.634.1118F. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08086-5. PMID 39443807.
  22. ↑ "History: Best Paper Award". IEEE VIS.
  23. ↑ "2015 TVCG Best Associate Editor Award". CRS4. 31 December 2015.
  24. ↑ "Renowned Computing Society Announces New Class of Distinguished Members". ACM. Association for Computing Machinery. 12 February 2025.
  25. ↑ "SIGGRAPH 2025 Technical Papers Awards: Best Papers, Honorable Mentions, and Test-of-Time". ACM SIGGRAPH Blog. 10 June 2025.