Friday, June 22, 2012

Ivan Sutherland Gets Kyoto Prize

Ivan Sutherland, the former University of Utah professor who helped to pioneer the computer graphics industry, has received the prestigious Kyoto Prize, according to The Inamori Foundation. Sutherland will receive a diploma, a 20-karat gold Kyoto Prize medal, and cash worth 50 million yen (approximately US$630,000) for his work in pioneering computer graphics and graphical user interfaces over the years. Sutherland is best known in Utah for co-founding Evans & Sutherland, the computer graphics and simulation firm he co-founded with David C. Evans. In the industry, Sutherland is best known for creating Sketchpad, one of the very first computer graphics user interfaces, which was developed in 1963 to allow users to manipulate graphics using a pointer on a computer. Sutherland was also instrumental in creating the first virtual reality and augmented reality head mounted display systems. Sutherland's influence goes beyond his own inventions: his students and employees include the co-founders of Pixar, Adobe, Silicon Graphics, and other firms, as well as numerous others who helped to shape the computer graphics industry. Sutherland is now a researcher at Portland State University.