Pat Hanrahan and Ed Catmull wins Turing Award, also known as “Nobel Prize of Computing” and named for computer scientist Alan M. Turing. The two will share a $1 million prize.
The duo will split the $1 million cash prize for the Association for Computing Machinery’s(ACM) A.M. Turing Award, which is sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing” and named for British mathematician and computer scientist Alan M. Turing.
Catmull has contributed to many fundamental important advances in 3D computer graphics. Catmull graduated in 1969 with a B.S. in physics and computer science from the University of Utah, In 1972, Catmull made his earliest contribution to the film industry: an animated version of his left hand.
Hanrahan joined Pixar in 1986 and left Pixar to join the faculty at Princeton University in 1989. Hanrahan pioneered many new techniques in computer graphics, including “physically based rendering,”
Ed Catmull (left) and Pat Hanrahan. Photo credits: Pixar/Deborah Coleman (Catmull); Stanford U./Andrew Brodhead (Hanrahan)
In granting the award to Catmull and Hanrahan, ACM said their developments in 3D computer imagery have been central to the video-game industry, as well as in the fields of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
“CGI has transformed the way films are made and experienced, while also profoundly impacting the broader entertainment industry,” ACM president Cherri Pancake said in a statement. “We are especially excited to recognize Pat Hanrahan and Ed Catmull, because computer graphics is one of the largest and most dynamic communities within ACM.”
In 1986, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs bought Lucasfilm’s Computer Animation Division and renamed it Pixar, tapping Catmull as its president. One of Catmull’s first hires at Pixar was Hanrahan, who had received a PhD in biophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked briefly at NYIT’s Computer Graphics Laboratory.
Hanrahan, working with Catmull and other members of the Pixar team, was the lead architect of a new kind of graphics system — later named RenderMan — which allowed curved shapes to be rendered with realistic material properties and lighting. During his time at Pixar, Hanrahan also developed techniques for volume rendering, which lets a CGI artist render a 2D projection of a 3D data set (such as a puff of smoke). Hanrahan left Pixar in 1989 to return to academia, but the RenderMan system would go on to power the production of Pixar’s blockbuster hits, starting with 1995’s “Toy Story.”
Under Catmull’s leadership, Pixar made series of successful films using RenderMan, which the company also licensed to other companies. The software has been used in 44 of the last 47 films nominated for an Oscar in the visual effects category, including “Avatar,” “Titanic,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and the “Star Wars” prequels.
ACM said it will present the Turing Award to Catmull and Hanrahan at its annual awards banquet on June 20 in San Francisco.