Christopher Scot Weaver (born February 6, 1951) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

, author, and educator. He is known for founding

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...

, where he was one of the creators of ''

The Elder Scrolls ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of action role-playing games, action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on Nonlinear gameplay, free-form gameplay in an ...

'' role-playing series. Weaver and Bethesda are credited with developing the first real-time physics engine for sports simulation, used in Bethesda's ''

Gridiron! ''Gridiron!'' is a 1986 sports video game developed by Bethesda Softworks and published by Electronic Arts. The game was the first title of Maryland studio, founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT graduate Christopher Weaver and lea ...

'' video game. Weaver also developed game screen captioning for the deaf and made it available as

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

software.

Career

Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from ove ...

, Weaver helped redesign the campus radio and television studios, and modified Link Trainers to better simulate situational spatial awareness. Because of this experience, he created AeroTechnology Enterprises, a company specializing in analog training simulators for aviation. Weaver moved to New York for post-graduate work at Columbia University and got a night job as an Assistant Director of News at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. He was then hired by the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

, where he established the first office of Technology Forecasting for the network. He then became the Vice-President for Science and Technology at the National Cable Television Association ( NCTA), followed by an appointment as Chief Engineer to the

Congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...

Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Weaver later started Videomagic Laboratories, a company working in vehicular simulators for military and entertainment purposes. He temporarily moved to Los Angeles to work on the Universal Studios lot in Burbank, working on new camera technology with

Panavision Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...

for interactive media. During this time, Weaver contributed to early work in graphical interfaces, optical storage, and computer-assisted editing, including encoding spatial information for tracking camera shots. In the 1980s, Weaver was introduced to video games when he was asked by one of his engineers to look at a football game idea he was developing. Weaver felt it "was boring" and sought to create a more realistic gameplay by incorporating physics. This meant that players would perform based on their masses and accelerations, adding a layer of reality-based strategy to the game. They decided to produce the game, resulting in the formation of

. The game was released as ''Gridiron!'' for the

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

128 128 may refer to *128 (number), a natural number *AD 128, a year in the 2nd century AD *128 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *128 (New Jersey bus) *128 Nemesis, a main-belt asteroid *Fiat 128, also known as the Zastava 128, a small family car **SEAT ...

, in 1986. Bethesda later found widespread success as a game developer with its ''Elder Scrolls'' series of games. In 1999, Weaver cofounded ZeniMax Media with Robert A. Altman, as a new parent company for Bethesda. Weaver contributed his stake in Bethesda to ZeniMax, and served as CTO until 2002, then was pushed out. He filed a lawsuit against ZeniMax, claiming he was ousted by his new business partners and was owed severance when ZeniMax didn't renew his employment contract. The lawsuit was ongoing as of 2007, and at that time Weaver was still a 33% stockholder.

Current

As of 2016, Weaver has been pursuing a career in academia, in which he teaches computational media in the College of Integrative Sciences at Wesleyan University. He also teaches in the Comparative Media Studies and Engineering departments at MIT. He is a Fellow of the Futures of Entertainment Consortium; a Board Member of the Communications Technology Roadmap Group and a visiting scientist in the Microphotonics Center. Recently, he was asked to co-direct a new Center at MIT, which will use the science and epistemology of game tools to enhance STEM education for children of multiple age groups. Weaver continues to serve on committees for various national and international organizations. Some of his past and present appointments include: *

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

* National Research Council *

International Game Developers Association The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...

* Cable Telecommunications Research Institute * Society of Cable Television Engineers *

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

In 2016, as part of the MIT educational contingent, he became Director of Interactive Simulation for the AIM Photonics Academy. He has acted as technical advisor to various governments and organizations, including the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

Office of Technology Policy The Technology Administration (TA) was an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that worked with United States industries to promote economic competitiveness. The TA used the web domain technology.gov. The TA was most recently led by fo ...

, Congressional Committee of House Administration and the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

. Weaver has been a technical advisor to numerous films including ''

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

'', where writer/producer

Dean Devlin Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the The Librarian (franchise), ''Li ...

used Weaver as the basis for the film character David Levinson (played by

Jeff Goldblum Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum ( ; born October 22, 1952) is an American actor and musician. He has starred in some of the highest-grossing films, such as ''Jurassic Park'' (1993) and ''Independence Day'' (1996), as well as their sequels. Goldblum ...

) and on the science fiction film, ''

Geostorm ''Geostorm'' is a 2017 American science-fiction disaster film directed, cowritten, and coproduced by Dean Devlin (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris, and Andy García. It f ...

''. In 2005, Weaver was inducted into the

Cosmos Club The Cosmos Club is a 501(c)(7) private social club in Washington, D.C., that was founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878 as a gentlemen's club for those interested in science. Among its stated goals is, "The advancement of its members in science, ...

for excellence in Engineering. In 2016, Weaver was appointed a Distinguished Research Scholar by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

and installed as the first Project Director of the newly created Video Game Pioneers Archive within the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Publications

Weaver has been published in a number of science and technology journals and periodicals, including: the MIT Microphotonics Center, ''

IEEE Spectrum ''IEEE Spectrum'' is a magazine edited and published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The first issue of ''IEEE Spectrum'' was published in January 1964 as a successor to ''Electrical Engineering''. In 2010, ''IEEE Spe ...

'', '' Techline'', ''

Edge Magazine ''Edge'' is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc. It is a UK-based magazine and publishes 13 issues annually. The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt in 1993. It has also released foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, F ...

'', ''SCTE Journal'', ''

NCTA Bulletin NCTA, formerly known as the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), is a trade association representing the broadband and cable television industries in the United States. As of 2011, NCTA represented more than 90% of the U.S. c ...

'', ''ITU Standards'', ''

Video Magazine Video magazines are a series of online videos that follow the print magazine format in which the reader/viewer consumes an issue on a periodic basis. Video magazines differ from traditional online magazine or ezine because they are delivered in a ...

'', and ''

Next Generation Magazine ''Next Generation'' was a US video game magazine that was published by Imagine Media (now Future US). It was affiliated to and shared content with the UK's ''Edge'' magazine. ''Next Generation'' ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was ...

'' on subjects ranging from microprocessors to

copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, e ...

. He is also a co-writer/creator of the multi-volume science-fiction series ''The Tenth Planet'' published by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

and was the technical editor and contributor for ''Fundamentals of Game Design''.

Personal life

Weaver is a volunteer air ambulance pilot for

AngelFlight Angel Flight is the name used by a number of groups whose members provide free air transportation for passengers in need of medical treatment far from home and perform other missions of community service. Such a non-profit organization may be l ...

and holds numerous FAA licenses and type certificates. He is married to Nanci Weaver. In 1994, he was married to Dr Constance Bohon, chief of gynecology of

Columbia Hospital for Women The Columbia Hospital for Women was a former hospital located in Washington, D.C. Originally opening in 1866 as a health-care facility for wives and widows of Civil War soldiers, it moved in 1870 from Thomas Circle to its later location at 2425 L ...

, and they had a son named Isaac.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Christopher American company founders American computer businesspeople Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni American video game programmers American video game producers Bethesda Softworks employees American video game businesspeople Wesleyan University alumni Wesleyan University faculty ZeniMax Media Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople