Practitioner Award

The SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the practice and advancement of Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. The award recognizes the very best and most influential applications and practitioners. The award includes a $2,000 cash prize.

Current Recipients

Íñigo Quílez

Pol Jeremias

SIGGRAPH is honored to present the 2022 ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award to Pol Jeremias and Iñigo Quilez for the development of Shadertoy and other contributions to computer graphics.

Shadertoy is a tool for rapidly developing shader programs in a browser window, using GLSL and a small but powerful vocabulary of functions extending it.  Each month, ShaderToy is used by millions of users from virtually every country in the world.  It is used by graphics practitioners, researchers and the education community.  It has also crossed boundaries and has been adopted as a tool used by industries outside the SIGGRAPH community.

One reason for this broad user-base is that Shadertoy is not just a programming environment: it also lets users see and build on each others’ work, learning new techniques in context. Commenting on shaders allows the community to share ideas and insights. Browsing through tens of thousands of shaders helps inspire new ideas. or a procedural art gallery: it’s the basis for a vibrant and connected community of practitioners, researchers, educators, technical artists and creatives, and anyone interested in sharing and learning about computer graphics.

Pol and Iñigo are both active volunteers in the community, and have contributed to and presented at SIGGRAPH and other conferences. For this and Shadertoy, we honor them with the 2022 ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioner Award.

Previous Recipients

  • 2021 Brent Burley
  • 2020 Elizabeth Baron
  • 2019 Stephen Hill
  • 2018 Bill Reeves

Criteria

  • Impact to Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques based on practical application in methods, products, services or systems.
  • Cumulative, demonstrable contributions to the field directly and through leadership of others
  • Innovation and the stimulation of innovation through practice
  • Influence on the work of others, and acceptance of practice by the ACM SIGGRAPH community

Nomination Procedure

The Practitioner Award Committee evaluates nominations based on the outlined criteria. ACM SIGGRAPH members are encouraged to submit their nominations to the Practitioner Award Chair by January 31.

Requirements

  • Contact information of the candidate
  • Contact information of the nominator
  • A brief summary (English, maximum one page) explaining how the candidate meets the criteria of the award
  • Contact information of at least two people knowledgeable about the qualifications of the candidate and who are willing to submit letters in support of the nomination upon request