Oscars.org reports that the Academy’s Board of Governors voted the Gordon E. Sawyer Award to Ed Catmull, a computer scientist, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, for his lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the field of computer graphics for the motion picture industry.
Catmull founded three of the leading centers of computer graphics research – the computer graphics laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology, the computer division of Lucasfilm Ltd., and Pixar Animation Studios.
Catmull previously received two Scientific and Engineering Awards: in 1992 as part of a team for the development of “RenderMan†software, and in 1995 as part of a team responsible for pioneering inventions in Digital Image Compositing. He also shared a Technical Achievement Award in 2005.
Established in 1981, the Sawyer Award is presented to “an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.†Catmull is the 22nd recipient of the award.
