Ben Fry received his doctoral degree from the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, where his research focused on combining fields such as computer science, statistics, graphic design, and data visualization as a means for understanding information. After completing his dissertation in 2004, he spent time developing tools for visualization of genetic data as a postdoc with Eric Lander at the Eli & Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. During the 2006-2007 school year, Ben was the Nierenberg Chair of Design for the Carnegie Mellon School of Design.

He is the author of Visualizing Data (O’Reilly, 2007) and the co-author, with Casey Reas, of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists (MIT Press, 2007) and Getting Started with Processing (O’Reilly, 2010), which describe the project they co-founded in 2001. Ben’s work was part of the Whitney Biennial in 2002 and the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial in 2003 and 2006. Other pieces have appeared in the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography in New York, at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, and in the films Minority Report and The Hulk. His information graphics have also illustrated articles for the New York Times,New York Magazine, and the journal Nature. Ben was selected as one of Fast Company’s 50 Most Influential Designers in America (2011) and as one of Slate’s Top Right (2011). He has lectured on data, design, and programming on five continents.

In 2011, Ben won the National Design Award for Interaction Design. At a White House luncheon for the honorees, he had the opportunity to meet Michelle Obama, whom he found to be very gracious but quite imposing in heels.

Teri Schindler has spent her career working in media, producing documentaries, short form content, and global events, like the Olympics, for NBC, CBS, ABC/ESPN, and HBO, earning several Emmy and Gracie Awards for her work. As vice president of programming and marketing for NBA Entertainment, she developed brand strategies, partnerships, and programming concepts for the NBA. She has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies on emerging technologies and content/platform strategies. As a freelance writer, Teri has been published in Elle Magazine and theBoston Globe, among others. She has been a featured speaker at Harvard Business School’s Dynamic Women in Business conference. Teri graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Notre Dame.

Katy Harris hails from the great state of Texas, but was lured to northern regions to study business at Carnegie Mellon University. She worked as both developer and designer in a number of industries before pursuing an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her thesis work combined concepts from design and programming to explore the notion of narrative multiplicity, investigating tagging, indexing, and analog computing devices as forms of narrative structure. She returns to RISD periodically as a critic, teacher, and compulsive collector of books and supplies. She comes to Fathom from a local startup, where she was designing interfaces to aid in the investigation of fraud within large banking networks. As a byproduct of this experience, she is an accomplished check forger.

Mark Schifferli likes to make life easier through computing. His programming career started at Target Analysis Group, where he processed and analyzed nonprofit revenue data. After seeing his first data visualization application, he was hooked on teasing meaningful stories from large and complicated data sets. This led him to join EnerNOC, an energy management company, where he developed applications for critical real time decision making during electrical grid emergencies.

Prior to programming, Mark contributed to various ensembles in San Francisco’s experimental music scene as a guitarist and recording engineer. Mark graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University, Bloomington, with a BA in philosophy and minors in math and French.

When Andrés Colubri joined us, the office filled with Android phones and tablets, Kinect sensors, old laptops, and a rubber band-powered airplane. Andrés is a researcher and hacker interested in combining computer programming, science, and art. He studied mathematics in his native Argentina, carried out research in computational biology at the University of Chicago, and later obtained an MFA from the Design|Media Arts program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Andrés currently works with visualization of biological and epidemiological data. He is also involved in developing new graphics and video libraries for the Processing platform. Prior to Fathom, Andrés taught bioinformatics and systems biology in the subtropical island of Jeju, South Korea.

Terrence Fradet grew up in western Massachusetts, attending private schools rooted in the arts. He studied graphic design at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA; however, he was more likely found developing his craftsmanship in the fine arts and industrial design buildings. As a result of taking research-driven design classes he discovered the importance of visualizing data. Terrence enjoys making information accessible as a byproduct of his visual process to learning. After replanting his life in Boston to join Fathom, he is relieved to begin skiing, mountain biking, and rock climbing again.

James Grady is a proud native of “Little Rhody” but has lived in Boston for over thirteen years. After spending eleven years at a strategic branding and design firm as a designer, senior designer, and associate, James decided to take a big risk and return to school. He earned his MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. During that time he discovered Fathom and became their oldest intern to date. James continued to work with Fathom while completing his thesis and joined the studio full-time shortly after graduation. Prior to RISD, he received a BFA in Digital Media from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

At Fathom, James takes pride in designing innovative experiences and systems. His work includes interactive and static visualizations as well as animation and video editing; he also supports the front-end engineering of various projects.

James enjoys boasting about his daily NikeFuel points after he walks two blocks for lunch. When he’s not at work, he’s happiest spending time with his wife Christina and their daughters Joy and Flora.

A Minnesota girl at heart, Alex Geller first headed east to study geography and English at Middlebury College. Though versed in more traditional forms of storytelling, Alex became fascinated by the visual narratives she found in her cartography classes. She’s been combing through spatial data and mapmaking ever since. Her love of writing, audio editing, and mapping has taken her from The Jerusalem Post to Backpacker Magazine, WNYC New York Public Radio, and now to her desk at Fathom. Outside the office, you can help her find her way out of the nearest hiking, biking, and paddle trails because, regardless of her cartographic inclinations, she is most likely lost.