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Outstanding Technical Contributions Award 2010 – Markus Gross

Markus Gross is the recipient of the Eurographics Outstanding Technical Contributions Award 2010 in recognition of his outstanding technical contributions to computer graphics, particularly in the areas of point-based graphics, virtual reality systems, 3D video, and physically based animation.
Markus Gross is a professor of computer science at ETH Zurich, head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory and the director of Disney Research Zurich. He received a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering and a PhD in computer graphics and image analysis, both from the University of Saarbrücken, Germany. From 1990 to 1994, Gross worked for the Computer Graphics Center in Darmstadt, where he established and directed the Visual Computing Group. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and he holds various patents on core graphics and visualization technologies.

Much of Markus’ research has been devoted to the design of methods and algorithms for point-based computer graphics. Together with his collaborators and students, he has pioneered the scientific understanding of point samples as primitives for computer graphics and developed techniques for rendering, processing, modeling, editing, and animating of point-sampled geometry. In addition, he suggested novel hardware architectures for point based rendering and processing and published a book on point-based graphics.

A second major research theme of Prof. Gross relates to the fields of virtual reality and 3D video. He devised blue-c, a worldwide unique system combining immersive projection and realtime 3D video for collaborative work over long distances. This project achieved the world’s first full integration of immersive projection and 3D video transmission. This research served as a basis for free-viewpoint video and is being utilized for sports visualization and visual effects.

A third major research interest of Prof. Gross is concerned with the design of algorithms for real-time physically-based modeling and animation. Based on earlier work on soft tissue modeling he investigated algorithms for the simulation of soft tissue, for deformation, collision, fracture, fluids, and for other physical effects.

He has served as a member of international program committees of the most important conferences in his field and chaired various scientific committees, most notably the papers committee of ACM SIGGRAPH 2005.

In 2008 he was appointed the director of Disney Research Zurich (DRZ), a new research laboratory of The Walt Disney Company.

Markus Gross is a true scientific leader. He has firmly established ETH on the international landscape, and several of his former students have themselves become productive researchers. He has demonstrated considerable leadership to computer graphics research in Europe and beyond.

Markus has significantly advanced the field through his work and by setting a personal example. Eurographics is extremely pleased to recognize Markus Gross with the 2010 Outstanding Technical Contributions Award.