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Andries "Andy" van Dam (born 8 December 1938, Groningen) is a Dutch-born American pioneering professor of computer science and former Vice-President for Research at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Together with Ted Nelson he contributed to the first hypertext system, HES in the late 1960s. He co-authored Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice along with J.D. Foley, S.K. Feiner, and John Hughes. He also co-founded the precursor of today's ACM SIGGRAPH conference.
He currently teaches several courses in computer graphics at Brown University, while serving on several relevant technical boards and committees.
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Students
Andy has mentored a large number of scholars and practitioners in hypertext and computer graphics, including Randy Pausch. Among them, he is known for his demanding but fair mentorship, and for the long-standing mutual commitment and loyalty he maintains with his students.
As far back as the late 1960s, Andy employed the services of undergraduate students in his research and teaching programs. This was a rare opportunity for undergrads to participate in academic activities usually reserved for grad students. Much of the research and development in graphics systems, hypertext, and systems programming languages was carried out by undergrads. Today, Andy still uses undergraduate students in his research and teaching programs.
One of his students was Randy Pausch who gained national renown during his two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. Pausch's Last Lecture in September 2007 was the basis for the bestseller Last Lecture. Van Dam was the final speaker after the hour-plus talk. He praised Pausch for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.[1] Pausch died on July 25, 2008.
Dick Bulterman was also one of his students.
Achievements
Originally appointed as a professor of applied mathematics, he helped to found the computer science program as a joint project between the departments of applied mathematics and engineering. When the program was promoted to a full department, van Dam served as its first chair, from 1979 to 1985. In 1995 van Dam was appointed Thomas J. Watson, Jr. University Professor of Technology and Education as well as professor of computer science.
At the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, he became the second person to ever receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science.
Van Dam is perhaps most renowned for building the first hypertext system, HES in the late 1960s, and with it and its immediate successor FRESS, pioneering the use of hypertext in the humanities and in pedagogy. The term hypertext, however, was coined by Ted Nelson who was working for him at the time.[2] Andy's continued interest in hypertext was crucial to the development of modern markup and browsing technology, and several of his students were instrumental in the origin of XML, XSLT, and related Web standards.
He is also known for co-authoring Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice along with J.D. Foley, S.K. Feiner, and J.F. Hughes. This book is generally considered one of the most important texts in computer graphics and is often fondly referred to as the "Bible" of computer graphics.[3]
In 1967, Professor van Dam co-founded ACM SICGRAPH, the precursor of today's ACM SIGGRAPH.[4][5]
Currently, Professor van Dam is teaching several courses in computer graphics at Brown University. In addition, he often teaches one introductory computer science course per semester. He is also serving on the Technical Board of Microsoft Research, as Chairman of the Rhode Island Governor's Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), and as Chairman of the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal committee. In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery,[6] and a chaired professorship was recently endowed in his honor at Brown University.
When the Brown Center for Informational Technology was built, Andy demanded it include showers and a Chinese restaurant. The showers were built and continue to be used to this day.[7]
The character of Andy in the film Toy Story is supposedly named for Andy Van Dam. Supposedly the filmmakers, many of whom had Andy as a professor, wanted to pay tribute to his pioneering work in computer graphics. This story is told during admissions tours at Brown University and has made it into the IMDB trivia for Toy Story.[8] Andy denies this rumor. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice appears on Andy's bookshelf in the film, which may be the origin of this rumor.[9]
References
- ^ Robins, Gabriel (September 20, 2007), Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, University of Virginia, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/csnews/show.php?artID=315, retrieved 2007-11-18
- ^ Andries Van Dam: Keynote '87 Key Note Address
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan D.. "COMP 600.456: Rendering Techniques Syllabus". Johns Hopkins University. http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cohen/RendTech99/syllabus.html. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
- ^ ACM SIGGRAPH: Report on Andy Van Dam
- ^ ACM SIGGRAPH: "Personal Reflections on four decades of Computer Graphics"
- ^ ACM Fellows, V
- ^ http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/10/31/Features/Getting.Clean.In.The.Cit-2411624.shtml?sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com
- ^ IMDB trivia for Toy Story page
- ^ http://archives.seul.org/linuxgames/Feb-2003/msg00004.html
External links
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