A picture of Chase Stokes. He is wearing a gray sweater, dark green plastic-rimmed glasses, and is grinning at the camera. Behind him is a blurred greenery.

Hello and welcome!

I am a Data Scientist at Morningstar's Quantiative Research Group in Chicago. I recently graduated a PhD Candidate at the University of California Berkeley, working with Professor Marti Hearst on advancing research at the intersection of information visualization and language. My work centers on data communication, specifically exploring how best to combine written and visual information.

I was a recipient of of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a coordinator of the UC Berkeley School of Information's PhD Applicant Feedback Program. Previously, I also received my B.A. in Psychology & Gender Studies from Northwestern University, advised by Steve Franconeri and Cindy Xiong Bearfield.

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Recent News

December 2025: Filed my dissertation, Combining Text and Visuals for Effective Data Communication! Many thanks to my committee: Marti Hearst (chair), David Bammman, Aditya Paremeswaran, and Vidya Setlur. Started my new role at Morningstar!

November 2025: Accepted a Data Scientist role with the Quantitative Research Group at Morningstar in Chicago!

May 2025: Started an internship at a Chicago startup: Becise Presentations, working closely with Steven Franconeri and Andrew Daniels on ML/AI-related product development!

March 2025: Presented at the School of Information Research Reception, where I discussed published work on Writing Rudders. Watch the talk here!

February 2025: Gave two invited talks at Georiga Tech (Text Visualization and Text in Visualization) and Emory University (Beyond Visuals: The Critical Impact of Text on Data Interpretation). Thanks to Dr. Cindy Xiong Bearfield and Dr. Emily Wall for having me!

October 2024: My coauthor and I were interviewed by the College of Computing at Georgia Tech about recent work examining how visualizations persuade and communicate bias. Read more here!

October 2024: Presented four talks at this year's IEEE VIS conference, including How Speech, Text, and Visualizations Influence Decisions with Data Uncertainty, The Role of Text in Visualizations, Grouping Cues Guide Viewer Comparisons and Conclusions in Bar Charts, and Writing 'Rudders' in the Initial Stages of Visualization Design. Videos of presentations will be added to the Research page when available!