At the IEEE Visualization 2001 conference in San Diego, Joe Kniss, Gordon Kindlmann, and Chuck Hansen of the SCI Institute were awarded "Best Paper" for "Interactive Volume Rendering with Multi-dimensional Transfer Functions and Direct Manipulation Widgets." This paper focuses on the added value of higher dimensional transfer functions and attempts to solve the complexity of using them with an integrated system. The system features a user interface that joins interactions in both the spatial domain (volume rendering) and transfer function domain, while taking advantage of modern graphics hardware to make it interactive.

Joe Kniss also participated in "Commodity Graphics Accelerators for Scientific Visualizations" panel, which received the "Best Panel" award. This panel focused on the role of modern graphics hardware in future visualization research. The panelists included Greg Humphreys, developer of Chromium from Stanford University; Tom Funkhouse from Princeton University; Dinesh Manocha from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Joe Kniss of the University of Utah's SCI Institute. The organizers were Michael Papka and Rick Stevens from Argonne National Laboratory.

Interactive Volume Rendering Using Multi-Dimensional Transfer Functions and Direct Manipulation Widgets