katherine salesin
I am a Ph.D. student at Dartmouth College and Future Investigator in NASA Space and Earth Science doing research in physically based rendering, advised by Wojciech Jarosz. Prior to my Ph.D., I received my B.A. in Computer Science with a minor in Marine Biology from Cornell University. My current research is on the fusion of physically based rendering in computer graphics with radiative transfer problems in other scientific fields such as oceanography, atmospheric science, and astronomy. I find projects that encourage going outside and exploring the real world particularly exciting. I also serve on the Executive Committee of WiGRAPH.
Outside of the lab, I enjoy sailing, volleyball, skiing, knitting and designing knitwear, sewing, woodworking, and statskeeping for Dartmouth volleyball and hockey.
publications
Unifying radiative transfer models in computer graphics and remote sensing, Part II: A differentiable, polarimetric forward model and validation
Katherine Salesin, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Jacek Chowdhary, Peng-Wang Zhai, and Wojciech Jarosz. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. March 2024.
Unifying radiative transfer models in computer graphics and remote sensing, Part I: A survey
Katherine Salesin, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Jacek Chowdhary, Peng-Wang Zhai, and Wojciech Jarosz. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. February 2024.
DIY hyperspectral imaging via polarization-induced spectral filters
Katherine Salesin, Dario Seyb, Sarah Friday, and Wojciech Jarosz. Proceedings of ICCP. August 2022.
Combining point and line samples for direct illumination
Katherine Salesin and Wojciech Jarosz. Computer Graphics Forum (Proceedings of EGSR), 38(4). July 2019.
teaching
I am very interested in finding creative, engaging, and effective teaching tools for computer science and other scientific fields. Teaching Statement
Reading Course Instructor
I designed and ran the graduate reading course in winter 2020 for Master's in Digital Arts students at Dartmouth. I wrote the syllabus and assignments, ran discussions, and arranged presentations from guest speakers. I strove to encourage curiosity in the students and build my repertoire of teaching skills by testing some interactive learning techniques.
Science Day Station Leader
Science Day at Dartmouth is an annual event where graduate students teach kids about their research and plan fun, hands-on activities. I designed and organized a computer graphics station that taught kids and parents about some of the science behind their favorite movies and video games and we did ray tracing in real life!
Deckhand
As a deckhand and educator on tall ships for Call of the Sea and Sea Education Association, I have taught elementary- to college-aged students basics of sail theory, marine ecology, oceanographic research, modern and historical navigation techniques, and seamanship.
fun
These are some projects I have worked on for fun.
Rendering Competition
For the Rendering Competition in the Rendering Algorithms class at Dartmouth, I extended our simple homework path tracer to simulate physically accurate polarization. My image shows clear diatoms viewed through a polarization light microscope, where the wavelength-dependent phase shifts caused by light passing through polarizers and waveplates create a vivid array of colors.
