SIGGRAPH 2005 Computer Graphics Achievement Award: Stam
Awardee(s):
Award:
- Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Description:
ACM SIGGRAPH recognizes Jos Stam with the 2005 Computer Graphics Achievement Award for his pioneering work on subdivision surfaces and on fast algorithms for the simulation of natural phenomena, especially fire, fluids and gases. He has contributed to establishing the theoretical foundations in computer graphics as well as producing practical methods used in commercial systems. He is best known for his paper on the exact evaluation of subdivision surfaces as well as his work on stable fluids.
Jos is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Alias. He received B.S. degrees in computer science and mathematics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1988 and 1989 (when he was proud owner of one of the first Amigas available in Geneva); andhe received an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in computer science both from the University of Toronto in 1991 and 1995, respectively. After doing a postdoc in Europe as an ERCIM fellow he joined Alias in 1997.
Jos’ papers reflect his desire to combine the creation of cool pictures with doing fancy mathematics.
At Alias he got interested in subdivision surfaces. His SIGGRAPH ’98 paper on exact evaluation of subdivision surfaces unifies two important shape representations: polygonal meshes and parametric surfaces. Before his paper it was generally believed that a subdivision surface did not admit an exact parametric representation of eigenbasis functions everywhere. In this paper, Jos disproved that belief and showed that a subdivision surface can be represented by a set of eigenbasis functions everywhere. The paper has been cited extensively in the
community and has inspired a significant body of follow-up work. Other important contributions by Jos in the area of subdivision surfaces are his paper on subdivision schemes generalizing uniform B-spline surfaces of arbitrary degree (CAGD ‘O1) and his paper on quad/triangle subdivision (Computer Graphics Forum ’03).
Jos’ second area of research on fast algorithms for the simulation of natural phenomena especially fire, fluids and gases again combines the creation of cool images with doing difficult mathematics.
His SIGGRAPH ’99 paper on stable fluids is a milestone in the field. The paper describes a simple idea to allow for arbitrary time steps in a Navier-Stokes solver, based on an unconditionally stable model. Although the resulting simulations may no longer be completely physically accurate, they ramin physically plausible and visually convincing, and the system allows an animator to design complex fluid-like flows in real time. Some more recent important
contributions by Jos in the same general area are on flows on surfaces of arbitrary topology, on fluid control taking into account derivatives, and on the visual simulation of smoke.
Over the past ten years, Jos Stam has been one of the most visible and prolific researchers in the field. His papers are both intellectually stimulating and practically relevant, and they use a substantial amount of mathematics to produce some striking images. Jos has collaborated widely, and he is an inspiration to all those around him.
Through his work and example, Jos Stam exemplifies the tradition of outstanding individuals in computer graphics. ACM SIGGRAPH is pleased to award Jos Stam the 2005 Computer Graphics Achievement Award.
Source:
- ACM SIGGRAPH Citation
