John D. Hunter
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John D. Hunter | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 1, 1968 |
| Died | August 28, 2012 (aged 44) |
| Education | Princeton University University of Chicago |
| Known for | Matplotlib |
| Spouse | Miriam Sierig |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neurobiology |
| Institutions | NumFOCUS Foundation |
John D. Hunter (August 1, 1968 – August 28, 2012) was an American neurobiologist and the original author of Matplotlib.[1]
Hunter was brought up in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and attended The McCallie School. He graduated from Princeton University in 1990 and obtained a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Chicago in 2004.[2][3] In 2005, he joined TradeLink Securities as a Quantitative Analyst.[4] Later, he was one of the founding directors of NumFOCUS Foundation.[5]
Matplotlib
Hunter initially developed Matplotlib during his postdoctoral research in neurobiology to visualize electrocorticography (ECoG) data of epilepsy patients.[4] The open-source tool emerged as the most widely used plotting library for the Python programming language and a core component of the scientific Python stack, along with NumPy, SciPy and IPython.[6] Matplotlib was used for data visualization during the 2008 landing of the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars and for the creation of the first image of a black hole.[7][8]
Personal life
Hunter married Miriam Sierig and had three daughters: Clara, Ava, and Rahel.[9]
Hunter was diagnosed with malignant colon cancer and died from cancer treatment complications on August 28, 2012.[10][11][12] His memorial service was held at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel (also the location of his Ph.D. graduation) on October 1, 2012.[13]