Sam Hertig: Visual Science Communication

Visual Science Communication

This rendering illustrates how scientists determined parts of the structure of the RNA export platform, and its relative position within the nuclear pore complex
The circular plot symbolizes the interaction analysis between different proteins
Client: Laboratory of Cellular and Structural Biology, The Rockefeller University (2016)
Software: Cheetah 3D, UCSF Chimera, and Adobe Photoshop

Interactive organization chart that maps principal investigators to their research areas
Live examples:
- Zurich Exhalomics
- Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences
Client: ETH Zurich (2017 / 2021)
Software: D3.js

Online tutorial on how to create a flexible and fully customizable 3D visualization that allows anyone with access to the internet to explore a biomolecule interactively
Client: Gaël McGill for clarafi.com (2017)
Software: three.js and UCSF Chimera

Graphic showing newly developed interdisciplinary collaborations between Swiss research groups resulting from large-scale SystemsX.ch projects
High-resolution pdf
Client: SystemsX.ch, The Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology (2017)
Software: Adobe Illustrator and circos.ca

Scientific poster on SonoEyes, a mixed reality application for the Microsoft HoloLens; presented at the Swiss Medtech Day 2019
High-resolution pdf
Created for Incremed AG (2019)
Software: Adobe Illustrator

Scientists and artists teamed up with the argovia philharmonic orchestra to create the collabrative audio-visual art piece The Sound of Molecules, stimulating the societal debate about the ethical challenges of synthetic biology
Client: NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering, University of Basel (2017)
Software: Adobe AfterEffects

Visualization of a hydroxycholesterol molecule bound to an oxysterol-binding-protein, which is implicated in signal transduction pathways in both yeast and humans
Client: California Institute of Technology (2019)
Software: Autodesk Maya and UCSF Chimera

Scientific poster on the molecular structure of the immature HI virion
Presented at the conference series Visualizing Biological Data (VIZBI) 2015, earned the best poster award
High-resolution pdf
Created for University of California, San Francisco (2015)
Software: Adobe Illustrator and UCSF Chimera

Interactive visualization illustrating the structural mechanism of CRISPR gene editing (web experiment, 2017)
Software: three.js and UCSF Chimera

Video of a molecular dynamics simulation of two fibronectin domains in the context of an entire fibronectin fiber
Created for the journal article A guide to the visual analysis and communication of biomolecular structural data, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (2014)
Software: Autodesk Maya and VMD

Offering interactive visualizations, graphics, and videos for selected clients, with an emphasis on visual communication of data and concepts in science and technology
Leading workshops and seminars on the topics of: Scientific Poster Design, Best Practices for Scientific Visualization, Interactive Data Visualization with D3.js, and Adobe Illustrator for Scientists
Selected clients include: ETH Zurich, Stanford University, CalTech, Universidade de Lisboa, Uni Basel, and Comerge AG
My publications on Google Scholar
Other creative endeavors: Photography, bass player for TonTopf
Currently a project lead and regulatory specialist for medical software at Comerge AG, Zurich, Switzerland.