Edwin Catmull

Edwin Earl Catmull is an American computer scientist and animator, a foundational figure in the development of three-dimensional computer graphics, who earned his PhD in computer science in 1974 and went on to direct the Computer Graphics Lab at the New York Institute of Technology. Catmull developed core techniques still used throughout computer graphics, including texture mapping for applying detailed surface images to three-dimensional models, bicubic patches for representing curved surfaces, algorithms for spatial anti-aliasing that smooth jagged edges in rendered images, and methods for refining subdivision surfaces; in 1972 he produced A Computer Animated Hand with Fred Parke, footage later used in the 1976 film Futureworld as one of the first uses of 3D computer graphics in a motion picture. Recruited by George Lucas in 1979 to lead Lucasfilm computer division, Catmull became a central figure in its 1986 spinoff, backed by Steve Jobs, into Pixar Animation Studios, and after Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 he guided both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios as they entered one of their most successful creative periods. Catmull received four Academy Scientific and Technical Awards between 1993 and 2008, the IEEE John von Neumann Medal in 2006, and the ACM Turing Award in 2019, shared with Pat Hanrahan, for pioneering work on computer-generated imagery.