Steven A. Coons Award for Outstanding Creative Contributions
to Computer Graphics
Pat Hanrahan
Pioneer Designed RenderMan Shading Language
NEW YORK, NY, July 16, 2003 -- ACM SIGGRAPH will award its
2003 Steven Anson Coons Award to Pat Hanrahan for his leadership
in rendering algorithms, graphics architectures and systems, and new
visualization methods for computer graphics. Hanrahan’s
contributions focus on both theory and practice of computer
graphics. His work is responsible in part for the pervasiveness
of computer graphics in the computing field. The Coons Award is
given in odd-numbered years to honor an individual’s lifetime
contributions to computer graphics and interactive techniques.
Hanrahan, the Canon USA Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford
University, receives his award at SIGGRAPH 2003, 27-31 July 2003, at
the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.
A prolific publisher, Hanrahan produced
well-known publications in visualization, including pioneering work in
volume rendering, the construction of effective pictorial
representations, and the display of large, multi-dimensional data
bases. He is best known for his contributions to the development
of the popular RenderMan interface, including the design of RenderMan
Shading Language. This work has led to programmable graphics
hardware and real-time “shaders” for games and interactive
entertainment applications. He has demonstrated extreme
versatility in a wide range of computer graphics areas for more than
two decades.
Hanrahan earned his PhD in
Biophysics at the University of Wisconsin in 1985. Through the
1980’s he worked at some of the most influential laboratories of their
day, including the graphics lab at the New York Institute of
Technology, Digital Equipment Co., and Pixar Animation Studios.
He joined Princeton University in 1989, leaving for Stanford in
1995. Hanrahan received the ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics
Achievement Award in 1993.