Schedule - Thursday, July 17
AMI 2024 Salon Student Award of Excellence: Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases (NRPS) by Chloe Woodin
Breakfast for Attendees
Welcome & Announcements
By Scott Weldon, Conference Program Committee Chair
President's Address
By Nobles Green, AMI President
Session 1: Keynote
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. One such individual was the pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, whom together with an extraordinary interdisciplinary team that included dentists, artists, and mask-makers, taught himself and others how to repair the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care. At its core, this is a story about how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.
Coffee Break & Book Signing with Keynote Speaker, Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris
AMI is excited to partner with Cellar Bird Books, an independent book store in Grand Rapids.
The following books by Dr. Fitzharris will be available. We are excited to share that Adrian Teal, a caricaturist, cartoonist, fine artist, and illustrator, who illustrated Plague-Busters will also be joining the book signing.
Session 2
By Tyler Sloan
In this talk, neuroscientist-turned 3D animator Tyler Sloan traces the evolution of neuron imagery—from the earliest microscopic drawings to modern 3D, data-driven representations. The lecture traces influential developments in how neurons have been depicted historically, the rise of oversimplified textbook schematics, and the recent surge in high-resolution reconstructions made possible by electron microscopy. Sloan demonstrates how visualization techniques not only reflect scientific understanding but can also shape it. Through examples drawn from his recent work using large open datasets—he demonstrates how data visualization techniques can be used with 3D rendering to accurately convey the real density and complexity of the brain, to help us to appreciate the elaborate beauty of the nervous system.
Roundtable Networking Session | Lunch
Moderated by Conference Program Committee Members: Katie Allen & Emi Frohn
Attendees will be assigned a table number for this interactive session in order to network and make new connections with the remarkable seasoned professionals and ground breaking newcomers that comprise our exciting field!
Lunch is provided.
15-Minute Transition Break
Session 3
Medical illustration plays a critical role in shaping how medical professionals perceive, understand, and treat the human body, and also shapes how all people in society see themselves. For patients in larger bodies, representation can reinforce or challenge bias and stigma. The absence of large-bodied patients in depictions of health and pathology can also contribute to “othering” and erasure.
This session explores the intersection of size-inclusive medicine and visual culture, considering how medical illustration can contribute to or challenge weight bias. We will discuss the lived experiences of fat patients, the varied ways they see themselves, and how these experiences may be influenced by medical and public health messages. We will consider how illustrators can disrupt harmful narratives and represent fat bodies with sensitivity and inclusivity. Finally, we will raise unanswered questions for further ethical and scientific exploration.
This session invites dialogue on the responsibilities and possibilities for illustrators who aim to advance the health of all people.
Networking Break with Refreshments
Session 4
By Daisy Chung
In this talk, award-winning science illustrator and graphics journalist Daisy Chung will share practical insights and creative strategies for connecting audiences to complex topics through visual storytelling. Drawing from her experience at National Geographic, Scientific American, and now Reuters Graphics, she will highlight the evolving role of illustration in journalism—from print to interactive digital platforms. Attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at the visual reporting process, including Daisy’s contributions to The Fentanyl Express, a Pulitzer Prize-winning year-long investigative project, and learn how thoughtful design and collaboration can bring clarity—and emotional resonance—to difficult medical and scientific subjects.
15-Minute Transition Break
Session 5
By Andrea Kim
This presentation will introduce an open-source skin simulation framework that leverages medical visualization expertise to generate synthetic dermatological images across diverse human skin tones, lesion characteristics, and imaging conditions. By applying knowledge-based models with advanced visualization techniques, we enable the generation of skin images with controlled variation of parameters. We will demonstrate how this framework integrates medical illustration principles to create diverse training datasets for AI applications.
The framework for synthetic image generation encompasses two primary components:
- An automated pipeline developed in Houdini's Python interface for generating procedural 3D models of skin tissue layers, blood networks, and lesions, and
- A spectral rendering methodology in Mitsuba 3 that produces photorealistic images with precise control over wavelength-dependent optical properties of each skin layer.
We will present quantitative results demonstrating how these synthetic images can supplement limited real datasets for AI model training and validation. The session will conclude with future applications and the potential role of medical illustrators in creating more equitable healthcare AI systems.