Prof. Daniel Cohen-Or is well-known for his contributions in multiple areas, spanning Computer Graphics, Visual Computing, Geometric Modeling, and lately, Deep Learning for Geometry Processing. He received his BSc and MSc from Ben-Gurion University before receiving his PhD from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1991. He is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Cohen-Or has made seminal contributions across multiple subtopics in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision. A common theme of his work is focusing on data representations (e.g., point cloud, meshes, volumetric data) and developing algorithms specialized for the chosen representation. For example, in his seminal paper “Laplacian surface editing”, Prof. Cohen-Or along with his colleagues demonstrated that preserving local differential properties is the key to enabling intuitive surface deformation, or in “As-rigid-as-possible shape interpolation” decomposed shapes into simplicial complexes and morphed them with affine transforms, or in “iWIRES: an analyze-and-edit approach to shape manipulation” restored global structure in the form of algebraic relationships between extracted curves in man-made objects. His creativity is unmatched both in terms of introducing novel and interesting problems as well as proposing simple and insightful solutions to well-established problems.
Recently, in the deep learning era, he has developed many networks specifically for graphics applications. Notable examples include “MeshCNN” as the first network that operates directly on meshes, P2P-Net for geometric transformation between point clouds, or a host of generative networks for synthesizing novel textures, animation sequences, and 3D shapes. A hallmark of his research is the simplicity of the proposed solutions that reflects a deep understanding of the underlying problem and the ability to come up with effective solutions.
Many of his PhD students have gone on to establish world-leading research groups, both in academia and in industry. Prof. Cohen-Or has served in the editorial role in all major computer graphics journals including Computer Graphics Forum, IEEE TVCG, ACM TOG, and the Visual Computer. He has made significant contributions to the careers of many students and collaborators, and has influenced research in both image and geometry processing.
Prof. Cohen-Or has received several highly visible awards and distinctions including the Eurographics Outstanding Technical Contributions award in 2005, the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award in 2013, and the Siggraph Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 2018. His large volume of work has shaped many areas of Computer Graphics and he has also been named a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in 2015.
Prof. Cohen-Or receives the 2020 Eurographics Distinguished Career Award in recognition of his excellent, prolific, and seminal contributions to multiple areas in Computer Graphics.