Zach Wise
Professor at Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois, United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolZach Wise is an Emmy-, Peabody- and Pulitzer-winning interactive producer and professor at Northwestern University with 14+ years building tools that help journalists tell richer stories. He leads work at the Knight Lab where he conceived and maintains widely used open-source projects like TimelineJS and StoryMapJS, contributing hands-on front-end fixes and UX improvements. A former New York Times multimedia producer, Zach blends newsroom experience with academic teaching, mentoring student-led prototype teams and stewarding product design. He pursues research at the intersection of UX and emerging media—experimenting with NFTs, generative models and new formats for platform-native storytelling—bringing practical engineering chops to creative journalism.
14 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
MA, Photojournalism, MA, Photojournalism at Ohio University
Stackoverflow
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Github Skills (7)
css10
javascript10
front-end-development10
ui-design9
internet-explorer9
json8
html8
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
NUKnightLab/TimelineJS
Feb 2012 - Aug 2013
TimelineJS: A Storytelling Timeline built in JavaScript.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:568 commits, 11 comments, 4 issues in 1 year 5 months
Contributions summary:Zach's commits primarily focused on fixing and improving the functionality and usability of the web front-end. They addressed issues related to JSON processing in Internet Explorer, added encryption for API keys, and implemented fixes for the linkify functionality. The code changes suggest modifications to the core JavaScript and CSS code to enhance performance and resolve compatibility issues.
timelinejavascripttimelinejsstorytellingbuilt-in
NUKnightLab/TimelineJS3
Jul 2014 - Apr 2019
TimelineJS v3: A Storytelling Timeline built in JavaScript. http://timeline.knightlab.com
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:366 commits, 120 pushes, 6 branches in 4 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Zach's commits primarily focused on front-end development tasks within the TimelineJS3 repository. Their work included finishing cherry-picks, which involved merging specific code changes related to CSS, and incorporating adjustments to the timenav and group height. They also addressed issues related to the visual representation of the timeline, adding functionality such as display for eras and text wrapping, indicating a focus on UI/UX improvements and overall user experience.
timelinejavascripttimelinejsstorytellingbuilt-in
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