The ACM SIGGRAPH Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of computer graphics. These are principal leaders of the field, whose efforts have shaped the disciplines and/or industry, and led the research and/or innovation in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The inaugural class of 2018 was formed from past SIGGRAPH award winners. Information on nominating new members can be found at the bottom of this page.
Recipients
2021 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
- Norm Badler of the University of Pennsylvania: For fundamental contributions to modeling virtual humans and to computer animation, and for educating multiple generations of diverse computer graphics students.
- Brent Burley of Walt Disney Animation Studios: For his contributions to rendering and production workflows everywhere.
- Mathieu Desbrun of Caltech: For contributions to geometric processing and establishing the discrete differential geometry framework.
- Doug L. James of Stanford University: For his pioneering work in the simulation of deformable models and in sound rendering.
- Karen Liu of Stanford University: For the development of simulation-and-control of tasks that require interaction between rigid-body dynamics and complex environments.
- Barbara Mones of the University of Washington: For the development of curricula in computer animation, and her long-term work in SIGGRAPH education initiatives.
- William Seaman of Duke University: For his pioneering work ‘Recombinant Poetics / Recombinant Informatics / Neosentience’.
2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
- Kavita Bala: For fundamental contributions to physically-based and scalable rendering, material modeling, perception for graphics, and visual recognition.
- Elizabeth Baron: For her trailblazing work in bringing virtual environments and related interactive techniques to engineering and design processes in multiple industries.
- Eugene Fiume: For development of physics-based fluid simulation, illumination simulation and character animation, and for advising and mentoring many leading researchers in academia and industry.
- Ming Lin: For contributions in collision detection, physics simulation, natural phenomena, crowd animation, haptics, and sound rendering.
- Hanspeter Pfister: For diverse contributions to visual computing including data visualization, point-based rendering, 3D scanning and physical fabrication.
- Alla Sheffer: For contributions in geometry processing and interactive geometric modeling.
2019 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
- Frederick Brooks: For pioneering work applying scientific rigor to virtual reality, and applying virtual reality to scientific research.
- Marie-Paule Cani: For contributions in implicit surfaces, physical simulation, sketch-based interaction, and expressive modeling, and for leadership in the graphics community.
- Donna Cox: For pioneering work in the art of scientific data visualization.
- Markus Gross: For contributions to point-based graphics, 3D capture and video technology, and physics-based animation, and for founding an influential industrial research laboratory.
- Dinesh Manocha: For contributions to geometric modeling, GPU computing, interactive rendering of large complex scenes, and interactive sound simulation.
- Ravi Ramamoorthi: For groundbreaking theoretical work in mathematical representations of visual appearance, and for translating these into computational methods with wide practical impact.
- Hanan Samet: For founding, developing, and authoring the definitive texts in the field of storing, processing, analyzing, and retrieving spatial data.
- Denis Zorin: For fundamental contributions that have advanced the fields of geometry processing, multiresolution shape modeling, and geometric principles of physics-based simulation in graphics.
2018 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Inaugural Class
- Ivan E. Sutherland: For Sketchpad and for providing a vision for computer graphics that has sustained the field.
- Donald P. Greenberg: For pioneering original ideas, and for education of graduate students in computer graphics and computer-aided design.
- Andries van Dam: For unwavering pursuit of excellence in the field of computer graphics, and for contributions to computer graphics education and related fields.
- Ed Catmull: For outstanding creative contributions as an individual researcher, for inspirational leadership, organizational direction and mentorship
- José Luis Encarnação: For leadership in applied research, for work in establishing international graphics standards, and for contributions to computer graphics education.
- James Foley: For strong and sustained leadership in computer graphics education and research, and for dedication to the profession through books and his work with ACM/SIGGRAPH and ACM publications.
- James F. Blinn: For pioneering work in rendering and educational animation, and for exemplary contributions as an author.
- Pat Hanrahan: For leadership in rendering algorithms, graphics architectures and systems, and new visualization methods for computer graphics.
- Tomoyuki Nishita: For work in the rendering of natural phenomena that has inspired computer graphics researchers all over the world.
- Nelson Max: For pioneering work in scientific visualization, for deep technical contributions, and for generous encouragement and stimulation of ideas and intellectual exchange.
- Robert L. Cook: For numerous pioneering technical contributions to rendering, and for extraordinary service.
- James T. Kajiya: For numerous pioneering technical contributions to rendering, and computer graphics hardware design.
- Turner Whitted: For the invention of recursive ray tracing and for groundbreaking contributions to the areas of shaders, procedural graphics, graphics hardware, novel sensors, and sensor arrays.
- Henry Fuchs: For contributions to augmented and virtual reality, telepresence and graphics hardware, and for educating the leaders in the field of computer graphics.
- Jessica Hodgins: For foundational work in character animation, for support and cultivation of emerging researchers, and for extensive volunteer service to the computer graphics community.
- Lynn Hershman Leeson: For paradigm-changing innovations with a broad range of emergent applications, and pioneering new modes of storytelling, all accomplished with a strong aesthetic and insightful cultural discourse.
- Roman Verostko: For seminal contributions to the creation and promotion of digital art.
- Yoichiro Kawaguchi: For creative and innovative artistry, giving life to a stunning aesthetic derived from dedicated research in computer technology, biological forms, and contemporary artistic practice.
- Charles Csuri: For visionary work in the early recognition of the aesthetic potential of computer graphics, and for a lifetime of dedicated teaching and creative production.
- Jean-Pierre Hébert: For pioneering achievements in creating art through computer programming, and using algorithms and innovative techniques for new forms of creative expression.
- Manfred Mohr: For pioneering achievements in creating art through algorithmic geometry.
- Lillian Schwartz: For pioneering work using computers in art including graphics, film, video, animation, special effects, virtual reality and multimedia, and computer-aided analysis of art and architecture.
- Steina Vasulka: For pioneering work in video as a creative medium.
- Ernest A. Edmonds: For major contributions to the development of computational art, and to the broader field of contemporary art.
- Monika Fleischmann: For pioneering the field of new media art through research projects based on interface design and new forms of communication.
- Loren Carpenter: For pioneering work in the design of algorithms for generating raster computer graphics, and for computer graphic images that mimic photographic realism.
- Alan H. Barr: For contributions to graphics, primarily for extending computer graphics shape modeling to include physically based and teleological modeling.
- John Warnock: For PostScript, which embodies a major contribution to imaging models, and to integration of graphics and text.
- Alvy Ray Smith: For seminal contributions to computer paint systems.
- Kurt Akeley: For contributions to the architecture, design, and realization of high performance 3D graphics hardware systems.
- Marc Levoy: For pioneering work in rendering volumes without an intermediate surface representation.
- Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz: For work in the modeling and visualizing of biological structures.
- Michael F. Cohen: For the development of practical radiosity methods for realistic image synthesis.
- Tony DeRose: For seminal work in making subdivision surfaces a practical geometric modeling technique.
- David H. Salesin: For pioneering the field of non-photorealistic rendering in computer graphics.
- David Kirk: For bringing high performance computer graphics systems to the mass market.
- Peter Schrӧder: For pioneering work in geometry processing and multiresolution modeling.
- Hugues Hoppe: For pioneering work on surface reconstruction, progressive meshes, geometry texturing, and geometry images.
- Jos Stam: For pioneering work on subdivision surfaces, and on fast algorithms for the simulation of natural phenomena, especially fire, fluids, and gasses.
- Thomas W. Sederberg: For pioneering work on free-form deformations, and the use of algebraic geometry in geometry modeling.
- Greg Ward: For the development of the Radiance synthetic imaging system.
- Ken Perlin: For broad contributions to and impact on computer graphics, ranging from novel mathematical approaches for modeling to hardware interfaces.
- Michael Kass: For significant contributions to computer graphics, ranging from image processing to animation to modeling, and in particular for the introduction of optimization techniques as a fundamental tool in graphics.
- Richard Szeliski: For pioneering contributions at the intersection of computer graphics and computer vision, particularly in image-based modeling and rendering.
- Greg Turk: For contributions to physically-inspired mathematical application in graphics, particularly texture synthesis, geometric modeling, and physical simulation involving thin structures.
- Holly Rushmeier: For work on global illumination, material capture, and the display of high dynamic range images.
- Thomas Funkhouser: For work in 3D shape-based retrieval and analysis, and for work on interactive systems for both visual and acoustic modeling of complex virtual environments.
- Steve Marschner: For contributions to modeling the appearance of natural materials.
- Fredo Durand: For seminal contributions to the field of computational photography.
- Ramesh Raskar: For numerous, impactful research contributions to computational imaging and light transport.
- Daniel Cohen-Or: For seminal contributions to the fields of geometry processing, shape analysis and image processing.
Nominations
The criteria for election to the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy are:
- Cumulative contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques
- Impact on the field through development of new research directions and/or innovations
- Influence on the work of others
- Reasonably active participant in the ACM SIGGRAPH community
- All accomplished members of the ACM SIGGRAPH community will be eligible to be nominated including researchers, practitioners, technologists, artists, designers, and educators.
ACM SIGGRAPH Academy members are selected by a ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Committee consisting of five voting members from across the SIGGRAPH community. Nominations for the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy may be submitted by contacting the SIGGRAPH Academy Award Chair before 31 January each year, and should include:
- A brief summary (in English, maximum one page) explaining how the nominee meets the criteria
- Supporting letters of exactly three endorsers. Endorsers should themselves have achieved distinction in the field. Endorsers will need to have personal knowledge of the candidate’s work. Endorsers will provide a brief endorsement statement giving their personal assessment of the candidate’s impact on the field.
- Nominator’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.