Friday, June 22, 2012

Kyoto Prize Awarded To Portland State Researcher

The prestigious Kyoto Prize has been awarded to Ivan Sutherland, a Portland State University professor who helped to pioneer the computer graphics industry. The prize--given by The Inamori Foundation each year--awards a diploma, a 20-karat gold Kyoto Prize medal, and cash worth 50 million yen (approximately US$630,000) to Sutherland, whose lifetime of work has been focused on computer graphics and visual interaction with computers. Dr. Sutherland designed Sketchpad, one of the first graphical user interfaces, which allowed users to manipulate figures on a computer screen using a pointing device. Sutherland later went on to found virtual reality and simulation firm Evans & Sutherland, worked on computer graphics at Sun Microsystems, and whose students and employees went on to found such companies as Pixar Animation Studios, Adobe, and Silicon Graphics.