The College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences is proud to congratulate Thomas W. Sederberg, an associate dean of the college, for receiving the prestigious Pierre Bézier Award. This award is given by the Solid Modeling Association and is one of the highest honors a person can receive within the geometric modeling community.
To honor the achievements of Pierre Bézier, the award’s namesake, the Bézier award is given to those who uphold the Bézier legacy. The award recognizes research contributions of lasting, technological importance in the fields of solid, geometric, and physical modeling and applications. Sederberg was nominated for his revolutionary work on topics ranging from algebraic techniques and free-form deformation (FFD) to subdivision and T-splines.
“FFD is a technique I invented in 1985 that allows an artist to easily alter the shape of any geometric object defined in a computer,” Sederberg said. “FFD is now used in almost all major computer aided design and computer animation programs. T-Splines is a technology for defining free-form surfaces that I invented in 2003. My son and some of my students formed a company to commercialize it, and the company was purchased by Autodesk in 2011.”
These processes can be applied to many items that are used in everyday life.
“Most of my research focuses on geometry for use in computer graphics or computer aided design,” Sederberg said. “Nearly everything you see in a Pixar animation involves a geometric description. Likewise, nearly every car, airplane, or consumer product is created using computer aided design, and geometric shape description is at the heart of those designs.”
Sederberg received this award on November 12 at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on Geometric and Physical Modeling in Denver. At this conference, he also gave an invited lecture titled “The Pursuit of Beauty” that reviewed Sederberg’s research contributions and the beauty that significant research results can often exhibit.
“I had not been able to attend many conferences for about seven years because my wife’s health required me to attend to her,” Sederberg said. “So it was particularly gratifying to know that my research has been appreciated even though I had not been able to attend conferences.”