ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 Award Winners

ACM SIGGRAPH 2018 Award Winners Announced

ACM SIGGRAPH has announced their annual award winners including two inaugural awards for the ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioner and the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy.  Award winners will be honored at the SIGGRAPH 2018 Opening Ceremony and Awards Presentation on Monday, August 13th at 9:00am at the Vancouver Convention Center (VCC) in West Building, Ballroom AB. The award winners, with the exception of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy, will participate in the ACM SIGGRAPH Award Talks on Monday at 3:45pm in West Building, Room 211-214 at the VCC.

Daniel Cohen-Or was award The Computer Graphics Achievement Award for his seminal contributions in the field of geometry processing, shape analysis and image processing. The Computer Graphics Achievement award is given each year to recognize an individual for an outstanding achievement in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Gordon Wetzstein was awarded The Significant New Researcher Award for his work in advanced display hardware and display-specific rendering techniques. The Significant New Researcher Award is awarded annually to a researcher who has made a recent, significant contribution to the field of computer graphics and is new to the field.

The award for The Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award went to Jun-Yan Zhu for his outstanding Ph.D. thesis on "Learning to Synthesize and Manipulate Natural Images." The award is annually given to recognize a recent doctoral candidate who has successfully defended and completed his/her Ph.D. dissertation in computer graphics and interactive techniques. This award recognizes young researchers who have already made a notable contribution very early during their doctoral study. The key criteria used to evaluate the nominations include technical depth, significance of the research contribution, potential impact on theory and practice, and quality of presentation. 

The Outstanding Service Award, this year given to G. Scott Owen, is presented annually to recognize a career of outstanding service to ACM SIGGRAPH by a volunteer. It recognizes an individual who has given extraordinary service to ACM SIGGRAPH, both in the trenches and in positions of more responsibility or visibility, over a significant period of time. Scott has been honored for his long-term, visionary, and dedicated service to ACM SIGGRAPH.

Monika Fleischmann was awarded The Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art for her pioneering efforts in the field of new media art through research projects based on interface design and new forms of communication. The Distinguished Artist Award is presented annually to an artist who has created a substantial and important body of work that significantly advances aesthetic content in the field of digital art. 

In the inauguration of the ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award, Bill Reeves has been named for his groundbreaking techniques in particle systems and Z-depth shadows, and in production software with the RenderMan renderer. The SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice and advancement of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. 

The first class of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy consists of past winners of The Steven Anson Coons Award, The Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art, and The Computer Graphics Achievement Award. The ACM SIGGRAPH Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques. 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.

ACM SIGGRAPH Academy

• 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 Hebert: 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.
• James H. Clark: For the development of the "Geometry Engine."
• 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.