Tony DeRose, Research Group Lead at Pixar Animation Studios, gave the 2014 Howard Rowlee Lecture at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, April 1, 2014, in Nebraska Union Auditorium (UNL City Campus).
Math in the Movies
Abstract
Film making has undergone a revolution brought on by advances in areas such as computer technology, geometry, and applied mathematics. Using numerous examples drawn from Pixar's feature films, this talk will provide a behind the scenes look at the role that math has played in the revolution.
About the Speaker
Tony DeRose is currently a Senior Scientist and lead of the Research Group at Pixar Animation Studios. He received a BS in Physics from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1986 to 1995 Dr. DeRose was a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. In 1998, he was a major contributor to the Oscar © winning short film "Geri's game", in 1999 he received the ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, and in 2006 he received a Scientific and Technical Academy Award © for his work on surface representations. In addition to his research interests, Tony is also involved in a number of initiatives to help make math, science, and engineering education more inspiring and relevant for middle and high school students. One such initiative is the Young Makers Program that supports youth in building ambitious hands-on projects of their own choosing.
The Howard Rowlee Lecture Series is made possible through a generous donation by Mr. Howard E. Rowlee, Jr., a Lincoln resident and friend of the department, who has established a fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation to support research in mathematics. The Howard Rowlee Lecture is an annual event which seeks to bring internationally acclaimed scholars in the mathematical sciences to UNL to promote public understanding of mathematical research and to stimulate the environment for mathematics research at UNL. The inaugural Howard Rowlee Lecture was given in 1997, by Efim Zelmanov, Professor of Mathematics at Yale University and the winner of the Fields Medal in 1994, for his seminal contributions to algebra.
