Digital Graphics Pioneer Charles Csuri Given Lifetime Achievement Award

The Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques has awarded former Ohio State alumni, professor and digital graphics pioneer, Charles Csuri, with its Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art.

Csuri, who many consider one of the fathers of computer graphics and digital animation, began his work combining art and computer science in the 1960s. He experimented with computer animation, winning awards and acclaim throughout Europe and the US.

Through his personal network of colleagues, he also was aware of parallel discourses among scientists in the early 60s who debated the role of computers in society. His profound understanding of these two cultures put him in a unique position to merge aesthetics and computing, long before either group recognized the potential synergies.

As such, Csuri managed to secure early funding for his work and successfully secured contracts with the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US Navy and others. The results of his 22 years of research have been applied to flight simulators, computer-aided design, architecture, magnetic resonance imaging, visualization of scientific phenomena and special effects for TV and film.

Csuri accepted the award Aug. 8 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

For more details, see the story in the current edition of onCampus  http://oncampus.osu.edu/2011/08/charles-csuri/