Jos Stam (born 28 December 1965 in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) is a researcher in the field of

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

, focusing on the simulation of natural physical phenomena for 3D- computer animation. He achieved technical breakthroughs with the simulation of fluids and gases, new rendering algorithms and subdivision surfaces, which are a mix between two previously incompatible worlds of Nurbs- and polygon-modeling in 3D.

Education and career

Jos Stam's maternal grandfather was the Dutch politician Sim Visser. His father Jos Stam was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

(Netherlands), and in 1944 at the , he was deported by the Nazis to Germany, where he had to repair railroads behind the western front, until being liberated by the American troops in 1945. He emigrated to the US in 1956, where he worked as a researcher for the DuPont de Nemours Company. He became a US citizen in 1964. In the US he met his wife, Alida Wilhelmina Visser, born in Wassenaar (Netherlands). In early 1965, Jos' father was transferred by DuPont to Geneva, Switzerland, where Jos was born as their third child in December 1965. Jos got his schooling in French at Geneva. In 1988 he received his bachelor's degree in

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

and a year later in pure mathematics, both at the University of Geneva, and his Masters and Ph.D. in computer science at the Dynamic Graphics Project at University of Toronto. After graduating, he held two postdoc positions, one at INRIA (in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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) and one at VTT (in

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Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

). He then joined SGI's ''Aliaswavefront'' division (which later spun out as Alias Systems Corporation) as a full-time researcher in Toronto and

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. He started with particle systems for the PowerAnimator software package. Then he made significant contributions to the fluids simulation component of Alias' Maya 3D content creation software product. As a result of Alias being acquired by Autodesk in early 2006, Stam became a "Senior Research Scientist" at Autodesk, Inc. in Toronto. Stam left Autodesk in 2018.

Awards

* SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement AwardComputer Graphics Achievement Award
. (2005) for his contributions to the field of computer graphics * Academy Award for Technical Achievement (2005) for his work on subdivision surfaces and their resulting impact in the film industry. * Academy Award for Technical Achievement (2008) for the design and implementation of the Maya Fluid Effects system.

References

External links

Interview with Jos Stam
, SIGGRAPH, 2002
Article on Jos Stam
'' Wired'', 20 December 2007
Podcast with Jos Stam
4 November 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:Stam, Jos 1965 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Computer graphics researchers Dutch computer scientists Silicon Graphics people Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners Scientists from The Hague University of Geneva alumni