Thomas Ertl is the recipient of the Eurographics “Outstanding Technical Contributions” Award 2006 in recognition of his outstanding work on visualization, GPU-based techniques in computer graphics and human computer interfaces.
Thomas Ertl received a masters degree in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of Tübingen. After his PhD, he became a professor of computer graphics and visualization at the University of Erlangen where he lead the scientific visualization group. Currently, he is a full professor of computer science at the University of Stuttgart, Germany and the head of the Visualization and Interactive Systems Institute (VIS) and the newly founded Visualization Center of the University of Stuttgart (VISUS).
The work of Thomas Ertl has had a profound impact with contributions on vortex extraction in turbulent flows (in IEEE Visualization 2005), on point-based visualization for astrophysical datasets (in IEEE CG&A 2004), on GPU-based cell projection (IEEE TVCG 2003), on transparency in technical illustrations (Eurographics 2002), on pre-integrated volume rendering (Graphics Hardware 2001), on interactive remote visualization for medical applications (VisSym 2000), on 3D line integral convolution (IEEE Visualization 1999), and the pioneering work on the use of graphics hardware in volume rendering (SIGGRAPH 1998).
Thomas Ertl has shaped the research agenda in volume graphics, visualization and the efficient use of graphics hardware and texturing. He has created one of the world top research groups, and he has advised a significant number of PhD students. Thomas Ertl has been and is strongly involved in the IEEE Visualization Conferences and in the EG/IEEE Visualization Symposia (EuroVis) and he will serve as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics from 2007. Ertl also has numerous ties to industry and he actively pursues research on innovative visualization applications in science, medicine, and engineering.
Thomas Ertl has significantly contributed to the advancement of the field of computer graphics through his work, and Eurographics is pleased to recognize Thomas Ertl with the 2006 Outstanding Technical Contributions Award.