Pat Hanrahan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pat Hanrahan
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Hanrahan in 2009
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| Born | May 8, 1955 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
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| Education | University of Wisconsin (BS, PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer graphics |
| Institutions | New York Institute of Technology Stanford University Princeton University Pixar |
| Doctoral advisor | Antony Stretton |
| Doctoral students | Maneesh Agrawala, Ren Ng, Matt Pharr, Tamara Munzner, Peter Schröder |
Patrick M. Hanrahan, born on May 8, 1955, is an American computer graphics expert. He teaches computer science at Stanford University. He studies how computers create realistic images and videos. This includes making special computer chips for graphics and showing scientific data visually. He has won many awards, like the important Turing Award in 2019.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Pat Hanrahan grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1977, he earned a degree in nuclear engineering. Later, he taught a new computer graphics class there in 1981. One of his first students was Donna Cox, who became famous for her art and scientific pictures. In the 1980s, he worked at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab. He also worked at Digital Equipment Corporation with Edwin Catmull. He finished his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1985.
Working in Computer Graphics
Starting at Pixar
From 1986 to 1989, Pat Hanrahan was one of the first people to work at Pixar Animation Studios. He helped create the RenderMan Interface Specification. This is a special language that tells computers how to draw images. He also helped design the RenderMan Shading Language.
He worked on several Pixar movies, including The Magic Egg (1984) and Tin Toy (1988). He was also part of the team for the very first Toy Story movie in 1995.
Teaching and New Companies
In 1989, Hanrahan became a professor at Princeton University. Then, in 1995, he moved to Stanford University. In 2003, he helped start a company called Tableau Software. This company makes tools to help people understand data using visuals. He is still the chief scientist there.
In 2005, Stanford University became a special center for the United States Department of Homeland Security. This center focuses on showing information and data in clear ways. In 2011, Intel Research helped fund a new center for visual computing. Hanrahan was a co-leader of this center.
Awards and Honors
Pat Hanrahan has received many important awards for his work.
Academy Awards
He has won three Academy Awards for his computer graphics research.
- In 1993, he and other Pixar founders won an award for RenderMan.
- In 2004, he shared an award for research on how light scatters in see-through materials.
- In 2014, he shared another award for their book Physically Based Rendering. This book explains how to make computer images look very real.
Other Major Awards
- In 2003, he received the SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award. This award recognized his leadership in creating computer graphics.
- He also received the 1993 SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award.
- In 2006, he won the Career Award for Visualization Research from the IEEE.
Special Memberships
- He became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999.
- In 2007, he became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- In 2008, he became a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
- He has also won three teaching awards at Stanford University.
Turing Award
In 2019, Pat Hanrahan shared the Turing Award with Edwin Catmull. This is one of the highest honors in computer science. They received it for their amazing work in creating computer-generated images.
Quotes
- Curiosity and passion determine success
See also
In Spanish: Pat Hanrahan para niños
