UCLA Computer Science Professor receives
Guggenheim Fellowship

Demetri Terzopoulos, Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, has received a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Terzopoulos' research encompasses computer graphics, computer vision, medical image analysis, computer-aided design and artificial intelligence/life.

The fellowship will support his continuing work in realistic human simulation, an area in which Terzopoulos has made important advances during the past decade. This includes emulating complex human activity in urban environments, which has resulted in computer models with autonomous virtual pedestrians. Also, he has continued to develop and refine a comprehensive biomechanical model of the human body.

Images of Terzopoulos' work: a large-scale simulation of a virtual train station
populated by self-animated virtual humans.

Selected on the basis of "stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment," each Guggenheim Fellow receives a grant to support his or her work. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has distributed more than $273 million in fellowships since its establishment in 1925.

A fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and Royal Society of Canada, Terzopoulos is one of most highly cited authors in engineering and computer science. His many honors include an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his pioneering research on physics-based computer animation, and the inaugural Computer Vision Significant Researcher Award from the IEEE for his pioneering and sustained research on deformable models and their applications.

Terzopoulos was one of three UCLA faculty members and a visiting scholar who received Guggenheim Fellowships this year. The announcements were made on April 10, 2009.

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