Launched in 2016, the Doctoral Dissertation Award is awarded annually to recognize a recent doctoral candidate who has successfully defended and completed his or her Ph.D. dissertation in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Recognizing young researchers who have already made a notable contribution very early during their doctoral study, the award is presented each year at the SIGGRAPH Conference and is accompanied by a plaque, complimentary full conference registration and travel to the award ceremony. Honorable Mentions may also be awarded.

Current Recipient

ACM SIGGRAPH is pleased to announce Rohan Sawhney as the 2025 recipient of the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. The dissertation coherently integrates deep theory, algorithm development, and practical implementation, enabling efficient simulations on highly detailed, complex geometries. Sawhney’s thesis proposes and explores a fundamental paradigm-shift in the way geometry processing and physical simulations are performed in Computer Graphics and other fields. By using Monte Carlo techniques he avoids the critical and error-prone domain discretization step that is required by traditional finite element methods. The immense potential

and deep insight of Rohan’s work emerges from a unifying Monte Carlo perspective on geometry processing, for simulation and rendering.

Sawhney starts out from the observation that geometric models in Computer Graphics today are complex and intricate, have rich surface detail, and depending on the source, may have self-intersections, holes or other artifacts that prevent them from being easily used in geometry processing and simulation frameworks for partial differential equations. Moreover, one might seek solutions on only a sub-region of the geometry, rather than requiring to simulate the entire region that may have millions or billions of polygons. Thus, he asks a revolutionary question of whether we can develop grid-free methods that simply operate in the continuous volume for simulation without requiring a discrete grid or mesh. The audacity of this question is noteworthy: for decades physical simulation in Computer Graphics has relied on the finite element method utilizing discretized domains. While Computer Graphics has previously exploited Monte Carlo methods in rendering, there was never a clear analogy in physical simulation approaches, which largely remained finite element- based. Upending this paradigm in simulation is a truly revolutionary advance.

In order to accomplish this goal, a broad range of scientific innovations is required, covering the entire spectrum from sophisticated mathematical formulations to highly efficient parallel algorithms and powerful geometric data structures. Rohan Sawhney’s dissertation has already inspired a considerable amount of follow-up work by other researchers in the field and has proven superior in many practical applications.

The committee also decided to award an honorable mention to Suyeon Choi for ground-breaking work towards the development of holographic near eye displays and to Silvia Sellan for a truly impressive dissertation on robustly and reliably processing geometric models “in the wild.”

Suyeon Choi   suyeon@stanford.edu

For a dissertation on ground-breaking work towards the development of holographic near eye displays.

Silvia Sellan    silviasellan@cs.columbia.edu

For a dissertation on robustly and reliably processing geometric models “in the wild.”

Nomination Procedure

All doctoral dissertations successfully defended (or thesis accepted) during the calendar year prior to the nomination deadline are eligible for consideration. There is no limit on the number of nominations that can be made from any single institution or advisor. 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 submitted dissertation should be a finalized version. Nominations are welcomed from any country, but only English language versions will be accepted. Nominations are evaluated by the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award Committee. Nominations, including all supporting materials and endorsement letters, are due by January 31 of each year. Click the button below to submit a nomination.

Requirements