Wyvill
A top scholar in the field of modelling and animation for computer graphics is the latest Canada Research Chair awarded to the University of Victoria.
Dr. Brian Wyvill, currently a professor of computer science at the University of Calgary, has been awarded the Canada Research Chair in Computer Graphics. He’ll join UVic’s department of computer science in January 2007.
Canada Research Chairs are aimed at increasing Canada’s research capacity by attracting and retaining the best researchers. UVic’s chair was included in a national announcement on April 28.
Wyvill is a tier-1 chair recipient, which means he is acknowledged by his peers as a world leader in his field. The chair provides him with $200,000 annually for seven years.
Wyvill completed one of the first two PhDs in computer graphics in the UK in 1975 and subsequently worked in industry, including some animation work for the movie Alien. He joined the University of Calgary in 1981 where he developed an interest in modelling forms that can change their shape easily.
Along the way, Wyvill was one of the early pioneers of “implicit surface modelling,” techniques used to model objects as diverse as the parts of a car engine to the delicate spirals of a complex sea shell. He has published about 100 research papers on this and related topics.
Wyvill says the long-term objective of his chair program is to search for new methods that will allow a wide variety of users to visualize complex models and processes.
“Whether the application is to show realistic images of dinosaurs walking for entertainment, or non-realistic sketches of internal organs that emphasise particular characteristics for educating surgeons,” he says, “better tools are needed to help experts produce accurate models.”
To date, UVic has been awarded 33 Canada Research Chairs out of its total allotment of 35.
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