Demetri Terzopoulos is an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

winning Greek-Canadian-American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

, university

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

. He is best known for pioneering the physics-based approach to computer

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

and

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

that has helped unify these two fields, and for introducing Deformable Models, among them the seminal Active Contour Models, to

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to re ...

, and other domains; he is also known for his

artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

research on realistic animal and human modeling and simulation, encompassing

musculoskeletal The human musculoskeletal system (also known as the human locomotor system, and previously the activity system) is an organ system that gives humans the ability to move using their muscular and skeletal systems. The musculoskeletal system prov ...

biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is a branch of ...

, neuromuscular and neuro-

sensorimotor Sensorimotor or sensory-motor may refer to: * Sensory motor amnesia * Sensorimotor rhythm * Sensory-motor coupling * The ''sensorimotor stage'' in Piaget's theory of cognitive development Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehens ...

control Control may refer to: Basic meanings Economics and business * Control (management), an element of management * Control, an element of management accounting * Comptroller (or controller), a senior financial officer in an organization * Controlli ...

, and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

. He has been a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, electrical and computer engineering, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and has taught courses in computer graphics, computer vision, scientific computing, and artificial intelligence/life at three universities. He is currently a

Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

and Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

, where he directs the UCLA Computer Graphics & Vision Laboratory.

Education

Terzopoulos was educated at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

where he was awarded an Honours

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Ba ...

degree with Distinction in 1978 and a

Master of Engineering A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, M.E. or M.Eng.) is either an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research de ...

degree, advised b
Steven W. Zucker
in 1980, both in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He went on to study at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

, where he was awarded a

PhD degree A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

in 1984 for

computer vision Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the human ...

research on the computation of visible-surface representations, advised by

Shimon Ullman Shimon Ullman (שמעון אולמן, born January 28, 1948, in Jerusalem) is a professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Ullman's main research area is the study of vision processing by both humans and machines. ...

and J. Michael Brady.Demetri Terzopoulos CV
UCLA His university education was fully funded by two NSERC Canada and two Quebec government postgraduate

scholarships A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

in addition to two McGill University J.W. McConnell undergraduate scholarships.

Career and research

Following his PhD studies, Terzopoulos was a research scientist at the

MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) formed by the 2003 merger of the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) and the Artificial Intelligence Lab ...

, a program leader at

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling comp ...

research centres in Palo Alto, California, and Austin, Texas, Professor of Computer Science and Professor of

Electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

and

Computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

Engineering at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, where he held a Lucy and Henry Moses

Endowed Professorship A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...

in Science. He then moved to UCLA, where he has been Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science since 2005 as well as

since 2012. Since 2016, Terzopoulos has been

Co-Founder An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any othe ...

and Chief Scientist of VoxelCloud, Inc., a multinational healthcare AI company with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai. He has held adjunct, visiting, consultancy, part-time, and internship positions at

, IBM,

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

Bell-Northern Research Bell-Northern Research (BNR) was a telecommunications research and development company established In 1971 when Bell Canada and Northern Electric combined their R&D organizations. It was jointly owned by Bell Canada and Northern Telecom. BNR w ...

, the

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; french: Conseil national de recherches Canada) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research & development. It is the largest federal research ...

Ontario Tech University Ontario Tech University (OTU), also known as Ontario Tech, is a public research university located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is located on approximately of land in northern Oshawa, while its secondary satellite cam ...

Paris Dauphine University Paris Dauphine University - PSL (french: Université Paris-Dauphine, also known as Paris Dauphine - PSL or Dauphine - PSL) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 universities formed by the division of the ancie ...

, and

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU; ) is a Public university, public research university in Shanghai, Shanghai, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education of China ...

. Terzopoulos' research interests are primarily in

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

, and

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 scientific publications, including several volumes, spanning these fields, 19 of which have been recognized with outstanding paper awards, and has delivered more than 500 invited talks worldwide about his research, among them well over 100 distinguished lectures and keynote/plenary addresses. Terzopoulos has served on review and advisory committees at DARPA (United States), the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Institutes of Health (United States), the National Academies (United States), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (Germany).

Awards and recognition

Terzopoulos was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in 2009., gf.org, 2009 He is or was an

ACM Fellow ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

, a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

(FRS) of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), a Fellow of the

Canadian Institute for Advanced Research The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a Canadian-based global research organization that brings together teams of top researchers from around the world to address important and complex questions. It was founded in 1982 and is s ...

(CIFAR), a Distinguished Fellow of th
International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI)
a Fellow of th
Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA)
and a member of th
European Academy of Sciences
the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

, and th
Hellenic Institute of Advanced Studies (HIAS)
In 2020, the

IEEE Computer Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

awarded Terzopoulos its

Computer Pioneer Award The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry. ...

"for a leading role in developing computer vision, computer graphics, and medical imaging through pioneering research that has helped unify these fields and has impacted related disciplines within and beyond computer science". Terzopoulos was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014. His certificate of election and candidature reads: In 2013, at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Terzopoulos was awarded a

Helmholtz Prize The International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) is a research conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) held every other year. It is considered to be one of the top conferences in computer vision, ...

for his 1987 ICCV paper with Kass and

Witkin Witkin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrew Witkin (1952–2010), American computer scientist who made major contributions in computer vision and computer graphics *Beatrice Witkin (1916-1990), American composer and piani ...

entitled ''"Snakes:

Active contour model Active contour model, also called snakes, is a framework in computer vision introduced by Michael Kass, Andrew Witkin, and Demetri Terzopoulos for delineating an object outline from a possibly noisy 2D image. The snakes model is popular in compu ...

s"'', which received a Marr Prize citation in 1987. In 2007, at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Terzopoulos was awarded the inaugural IEEE PAMI Computer Vision Distinguished Researcher Award for his "pioneering and sustained research on deformable models and their applications". ''Deformable Models'', a term he coined in his computer vision and graphics research work, is listed in the IEEE Taxonomy (''Systems engineering and theory'' → ''Modeling'' → ''Deformable models''). In 2006, at the

78th Academy Awards The 78th Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST ...

, Terzopoulos won an

Academy Award for Technical Achievement The Technical Achievement Award is one of three Scientific and Technical Awards given from time to time by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (The other two awards are the Scientific and Engineering Award and the Academy Award of Mer ...

from the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

with John Platt for "their pioneering work in physically-based computer-generated techniques used to simulate realistic cloth in motion pictures"; furthermore, their 1987

ACM SIGGRAPH ACM SIGGRAPH is the international Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques based in New York. It was founded in 1969 by Andy van Dam (its direct predecessor, ACM SICGRAPH was fo ...

Conference paper entitled ''"Elastically deformable models"'' was recognized by the Academy as "a milestone in computer graphics, introducing the concept of physically-based techniques to simulate moving, deforming objects".Academy Awards for 2006
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

In 2006, Terzopoulos was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada by its Academy of Science, whose short citation reads: In 2002, Terzopoulos was inducted as an inaugural Member o
The European Academy of Sciences
with the citation "Elected for outstanding and lasting contributions to computer science and pioneering developments in the field of computer vision."; he resigned from the academy in 2012. Terzopoulos was awarded a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Fellowship (1989–1995), a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (1996–1998), and a

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal in ...

Killam Research Fellowship (1998–2000). The Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society (CIPPRS) cited him for his "outstanding contributions to research and education in Image Understanding" with its Young Investigator Award (1998) as well as with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Research Excellence (2015). In 1973, Terzopoulos was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal and Centennial Fund Scholarship by the

High School of Montreal The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 was ...

. Terzopoulos' former students and postdocs have won significant awards for their work, among them the

ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award The ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award is awarded annually by the Association for Computing Machinery to the authors of the best doctoral dissertations in computer science and computer engineering. The award is accompanied by a prize of US $20,000 ...

in 1996 to

Xiaoyuan Tu Xiaoyuan Tu (born 1967) is a Chinese researcher and computer scientist specializing in machine learning, behavior modeling, physics modeling, biomechanical modeling, motion control interfaces, and intelligent virtual characters. She holds a Ph.D ...

References

External links

Personal website of Demetri Terzopoulos

Curriculum vitae of Demetri Terzopoulos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terzopoulos, Demetri Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Canadian Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellow Members of the IEEE Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners Computer graphics researchers Computer graphics professionals Computer vision researchers Artificial intelligence researchers McGill University Faculty of Engineering alumni Computer scientists Greek computer scientists Canadian computer scientists American computer scientists University of California faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty University of Toronto faculty MIT School of Engineering alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni High School of Montreal alumni Year of birth missing (living people) People from Bel Air, Los Angeles People from Big Bear Lake, California