AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin today announced that Gregory S. Johnson, manager of TACC’s Visualization and Data Analysis group, is a recipient of the NVIDIA 2006 International Fellowship Award. This is the third consecutive year that Johnson has been named a NVIDIA Fellow based on his cutting edge research and innovative ideas in the field of computer graphics.
NVIDIA’s competitive International Fellowship Program supports technology innovation through $25,000 awards and access to NVIDIA tools and technology. According to John Danskin, vice president of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Architecture at NVIDIA, Johnson’s work in accelerating irregular spatial data structures with GPUs is extremely innovative and relevant to the future of graphics and GPUs in general.
“This work inspires future GPU architectures and GPU-based algorithms for accelerating film-quality rendering in consumer electronics,” Danskin said. “Please join us in congratulating Greg on his third NVIDIA Fellowship.”
Johnson, a fifth-year student in The University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. program in computer sciences, submitted a statement of research titled “Spatial Data Structures for Real-Time 3D Graphics: Architecture, Algorithms and Applications.” The research is the topic of Johnson’s thesis and proposes fundamental architectural changes to graphics hardware to achieve the goal of “real-time global illumination,” a common term in the computer graphics industry to describe the complex, on-the-fly process of simulating light to create a synthetic world that resembles reality. The new component of Johnson’s research this year is in exploring the application of irregular data structures constructed on GPUs to the solution of problems in real-time global illumination.
“I’m honored and excited to be a recipient of this prestigious fellowship award,” Johnson said. “I value NVIDIA’s dedication to the pursuit of cutting edge research in the field of visual computing technology. I hope that my work will become an integral part of future technologies.”
Jay Boisseau, director of TACC, said, “Advanced scientific visualization is a crucial part of the knowledge discovery process in many areas of computational science. Greg’s work in this area will improve the capabilities of visualization systems for enabling researchers to more easily interpret their results and gain insight that leads to new physical understanding.”
Each academic year, the NVIDIA Fellowship program provides top Ph.D. students and professors in university environments crucial funding to further develop their research while offering practical experience to students completing their doctoral theses. These awards assist with school-related costs associated with specific research work in the coming year.
Contact Faith Singer-Villalobos to obtain a copy of “Spatial Data Structures for Real-Time 3D Graphics: Architecture, Algorithms and Applications.”
Note: Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the performance and capabilities of the NVIDIA 2006 International Fellowship Award and those individuals who receive the award are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, demand for and adoption of new technology by our customers and the market, the impact of our competition and other risks detailed from time to time in the NVIDIA reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended Jan. 30, 2005. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
For more information contact: Faith Singer-Villalobos, public affairs representative, Texas Advanced Computing Center, 512-232-5771.
