SIGGRAPH 2017 Outstanding Service Award: Rockwood
Awardee(s):
Award:
- Outstanding Service Award
Description:
The Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH) is pleased to announce Dr. Alyn “Rock” Rockwood as the 2017 recipient of the Outstanding Service Award.
Established in 1998 and awarded annually, the Outstanding Service Award recognizes exceptional service to ACM SIGGRAPH by a volunteer.
Selected as this year’s recipient for his long-term and significant contributions to both the ACM SIGGRAPH organization and its conferences, Alyn Rockwood is the 15th person to have received the award.
“I am genuinely honored,” said Alyn, upon receiving the news of the award. “It is a distinct privilege to work in a field I love, within an organization committed to its promotion, and among a community of so many talented, dedicated, and adventurous colleagues and friends.”
Since his first SIGGRAPH paper in 1981 (on hardware texturing and antialiasing), Alyn has taken active roles in shaping both of the organization’s major conferences. He was the SIGGRAPH 2003 Conference Chair, served as ACM SIGGRAPH Vice President from 2006 to 2009, and headed the steering committee that orchestrated the launch of the SIGGRAPH Asia conference.
Equally fascinated by art and science, Alyn has regularly contributed to both conferences over the decades, with accepted submissions to a wide variety of programs that include the Computer Animation Festival, the Art Show, Emerging Technologies, Papers, Courses, Sketches, and the Educators Program.
Having served in numerous positions across the highest levels of ACM SIGGRAPH and conference leadership, Alyn has provided mentorship and encouragement to hundreds of volunteers throughout his many years of service.
“It takes a special kind of truly dedicated individual to give so much time and energy to the ACM SIGGRAPH organization in so many varied and important ways,” said ACM SIGGRAPH Service Award Chair Terrence Masson.
Alyn Rockwood received his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University in Cambridge, England and has most recently served as Professor of Applied Mathematics and Associate Director of the Geometric Modeling and Scientific Visualization Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2013. His early professional work included working on Evans & Sutherland flight simulators and as a research scientist at SGI (1987-1990) where he was part of the team that developed GL and OpenGL. Alyn is also the author of the hard-science fiction novel “How Noble in Reason.”
Source:
- ACM SIGGRAPH Press Release
