SIGGRAPH 2000 Computer Graphics Achievement Award: Salesin
Awardee(s):
Award:
- Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Description:
ACM SIGGRAPH is pleased to present the first of this century’s Computer Graphics Achievement Award to David Salesin for pioneering the field of non-photorealistic rendering and introducing it to the SIGGRAPH community. His work on computer generated pen and ink illustrations and subsequently computer-generated watercolors are considered landmarks in this emerging field. For the past six years his publications in this area have been extremely significant and influential.
David achieved this breadth and versatility with a broad educational background at institutions covering almost the entire field of computer graphics. As a computer science major, he graduated magna cum laude in 1983 from Brown University, having gotten his start in computer graphics by being an undergraduate researcher on projects such as electronic books and mathematical visualization. In 1991 he finished his Ph.D. in computational geometry under the supervision of Leonidas Guibas at Stanford University. He then spent the year with photorealistic rendering at the Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell University. He has worked at the Lucasfilm, Pixar, and both the DEC Systems Research Center and Paris Research Lab in the development of algorithms and film production, and has a wealth of experience far beyond his years.
This superb background has enabled him to be among the most prolific authors in the SIGGRAPH community. In the past decade he has already authored or co-authored twenty eight papers, including one year when he participated in a record number of eight papers (1996). This is a remarkable achievement considering the enormous competition for this prestigious conference. His breadth of interests are illustrated by his expertise in a wide range of topics from solid geometry modeling to physically-based simulations to cinematography, non-photorealistic rendering and his contributions to wavelets and other hierarchical methods, via his co-authored book.
His teaching and mentoring skills are also renowned. Recently he has received the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award, Young Investigator Awards from both the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, and the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow Award.
Because of his pioneering efforts in non-photorealistic rendering and his prolific contributions to the SIGGRAPH community, David is well suited to join the list of outstanding individuals who have received the Computer Graphics Achievement Award.
Source:
- ACM SIGGRAPH Press Release, 2000
