The ACM SIGGRAPH Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of computer graphics. 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. The inaugural class of 2018 was formed from past SIGGRAPH award winners.
Current Recipients
Ed Angel
For a series of textbooks and courses that introduced a top-down approach to teaching computer graphics that let students create three-dimensional applications early in the course with a standard API.
Distinguished Educator Award
Hans-Peter Seidel
For contributions to spline and mesh processing, and for the impact of his research and mentorship.
Íñigo Quílez
For the development of Shadertoy and other contributions to computer graphics.
Practitioner Award
Marc Alexa
For pioneering contributions in geometry processing, shape modeling, and digital fabrication.
Michiel van de Panne
For his fundamental work in computer animation, particularly on the simulation and control of physics-based characters.
Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Paolo Cignoni
For contributions in geometry processing and computational fabrication, and for releasing important open-source tools.
Peter Shirley
For pioneering contributions in Monte Carlo rendering and real-time ray tracing, and for contributions to graphics education.
Pol Jeremias
For the development of Shadertoy and other contributions to computer graphics.
Practitioner Award
Vera Molnár
For her many pioneering computational art techniques engaging human sensitivity in the production of her abstract geometrical artworks.
Distinguished Artist Award
Previous Recipients
2021 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
Barbara Mones
For the development of curricula in computer animation, and her long-term work in SIGGRAPH education initiatives.
Distinguished Educator Award
Brent Burley
For his contributions to rendering and production workflows everywhere.
Practitioner Award
Doug L. James
For his pioneering work in the simulation of deformable models and in sound rendering.
Computer Graphics Achievement
Karen Liu
For the development of simulation-and-control of tasks that require interaction between rigid-body dynamics and complex environments.
Mathieu Desbrun
For contributions to geometric processing and establishing the discrete differential geometry framework.
Norm Badler
For fundamental contributions to modeling virtual humans and to computer animation, and for educating multiple generations of diverse computer graphics students.
William Seaman
For his pioneering work ‘Recombinant Poetics / Recombinant Informatics / Neosentience’.
Distinguished Artist Award
2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
Alla Sheffer
For contributions in geometry processing and interactive geometric modeling.
Elizabeth Baron
For her trailblazing work in bringing virtual environments and related interactive techniques to engineering and design processes in multiple industries.
Practitioner Award
Eugene Fiume
For development of physics-based fluid simulation, illumination simulation and character animation, and for advising and mentoring many leading researchers in academia and industry.
Hanspeter Pfister
For diverse contributions to visual computing including data visualization, point-based rendering, 3D scanning and physical fabrication.
Jeffrey Shaw
For his singular vision and pioneering efforts in the creation of interactive and immersive media art.
Distinguished Artist Award
Kavita Bala
For fundamental contributions to physically-based and scalable rendering, material modeling, perception for graphics, and visual recognition.
Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Ming Lin
For contributions in collision detection, physics simulation, natural phenomena, crowd animation, haptics, and sound rendering.
2019 ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Class
Denis Zorin
For fundamental contributions that have advanced the fields of geometry processing, multiresolution shape modeling, and geometric principles of physics-based simulation in graphics.
Computer Graphics Achievement Award
Dinesh Manocha
For contributions to geometric modeling, GPU computing, interactive rendering of large complex scenes, and interactive sound simulation.
Donna Cox
For pioneering work in the art of scientific data visualization.
Distinguished Artist Award
Frederick Brooks
For pioneering work applying scientific rigor to virtual reality, and applying virtual reality to scientific research.
Hanan Samet
For founding, developing, and authoring the definitive texts in the field of storing, processing, analyzing, and retrieving spatial data.
Marie-Paule Cani
For contributions in implicit surfaces, physical simulation, sketch-based interaction, and expressive modeling, and for leadership in the graphics community.
Ravi Ramamoorthi
For groundbreaking theoretical work in mathematical representations of visual appearance, and for translating these into computational methods with wide practical impact.
Stephen Hill
For implementing multiple advanced real-time techniques in various games and virtual reality experiences, and for leadership in sharing ideas with the rendering community.
Practitioner Award
2018 ACM SIGGRAPH Inaugural Academy Class
Alan H. Barr
For contributions to graphics, primarily for extending computer graphics shape modeling to include physically based and teleological modeling.
Andries van Dam
For unwavering pursuit of excellence in the field of computer graphics, and for contributions to computer graphics education and related fields.
Distinguished Educator Award
Bill Reeves
For his groundbreaking techniques in particle systems and Z-depth shadows, and in production software with the RenderMan renderer.
Practitioner Award
Daniel Cohen-Or
For seminal contributions to the fields of geometry processing, shape analysis and image processing.
Computer Graphics Achievement Award
David Salesin
For pioneering the field of non-photorealistic rendering in computer graphics.
Donald P. Greenberg
For pioneering original ideas, and for education of graduate students in computer graphics and computer-aided design.
Distinguished Educator Award
Ed Catmull
For outstanding creative contributions as an individual researcher, for inspirational leadership, organizational direction and mentorship.
Ernest A. Edmonds
For major contributions to the development of computational art, and to the broader field of contemporary art.
Greg Turk
For contributions to physically-inspired mathematical application in graphics, particularly texture synthesis, geometric modeling, and physical simulation involving thin structures.
Henry Fuchs
For contributions to augmented and virtual reality, telepresence and graphics hardware, and for educating the leaders in the field of computer graphics.
Holly Rushmeier
For work on global illumination, material capture, and the display of high dynamic range images.
Hugues Hoppe
For pioneering work on surface reconstruction, progressive meshes, geometry texturing, and geometry images.
Ivan E. Sutherland
For Sketchpad and for providing a vision for computer graphics that has sustained the field.
James T. Kajiya
For numerous pioneering technical contributions to rendering, and computer graphics hardware design.
Jean-Pierre Hébert
For pioneering achievements in creating art through computer programming, and using algorithms and innovative techniques for new forms of creative expression.
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.
Jim Blinn
For pioneering work in rendering and educational animation, and for exemplary contributions as an author.
Jim 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.
John Warnock
For PostScript, which embodies a major contribution to imaging models, and to integration of graphics and text.
Jos Stam
For pioneering work on subdivision surfaces, and on fast algorithms for the simulation of natural phenomena, especially fire, fluids, and gasses.
José Luis Encarnação
For leadership in applied research, for work in establishing international graphics standards, and for contributions to computer graphics education.
Ken Perlin
For broad contributions to and impact on computer graphics, ranging from novel mathematical approaches for modeling to hardware interfaces.
Kurt Akeley
For contributions to the architecture, design, and realization of high performance 3D graphics hardware systems.
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.
Loren Carpenter
For pioneering work in the design of algorithms for generating raster computer graphics, and for computer graphic images that mimic photographic realism.
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.
Marc Levoy
For pioneering work in rendering volumes without an intermediate surface representation.
Michael F. Cohen
The development of practical radiosity methods for realistic image synthesis
Steven Anson Coons Award
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.
Monika Fleischmann
For pioneering the field of new media art through research projects based on interface design and new forms of communication.
Distinguished Artist Award
Nelson Max
For pioneering work in scientific visualization, for deep technical contributions, and for generous encouragement and stimulation of ideas and intellectual exchange.
Pat Hanrahan
For leadership in rendering algorithms, graphics architectures and systems, and new visualization methods for computer graphics.
Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz
For work in the modeling and visualizing of biological structures.
Ramesh Raskar
For numerous, impactful research contributions to computational imaging and light transport.
Richard Szeliski
For pioneering contributions at the intersection of computer graphics and computer vision, particularly in image-based modeling and rendering.
Robert L. Cook
For numerous pioneering technical contributions to rendering, and for extraordinary service.
Thomas W. Sederberg
For pioneering work on free-form deformations, and the use of algebraic geometry in geometry modeling.
Tom 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.
Tomoyuki Nishita
For work in the rendering of natural phenomena that has inspired computer graphics researchers all over the world.
Tony DeRose
For seminal work in making subdivision surfaces a practical geometric modeling technique.
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.
Criteria for Election to the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy
- Cumulative contributions to the field of computer graphics and interactive techniques
- Impact on the field through development of new research directions and/or innovations
- Influence on the work of others
- Reasonably active participant in the ACM SIGGRAPH community
- All accomplished members of the ACM SIGGRAPH community will be eligible to be nominated including researchers, practitioners, technologists, artists, designers, and educators.
Nomination Procedure
ACM SIGGRAPH Academy members are selected by a ACM SIGGRAPH Academy Committee consisting of five voting members from across the SIGGRAPH community. Nominations for the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy may be submitted by contacting the SIGGRAPH Academy Chair before 31 January each year.
Requirements
- A brief summary (in English, maximum one page) explaining how the nominee meets the criteria
- Supporting letters of exactly three endorsers. Endorsers should themselves have achieved distinction in the field. Endorsers will need to have personal knowledge of the candidate’s work. Endorsers will provide a brief endorsement statement giving their personal assessment of the candidate’s impact on the field.
- Nominator’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.