Scientific & Technical Winners Announced

Were it not for the many scientific and technical achievements made in the film-making world, we might as well be doing shadow puppets for fun. This year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) handed out an Oscar® statuette and 19 other awards for scientific and technical achievement. These awards, which will be presented on February 28th, 1998, are voted on by the Academy's Board of Governors based on recommendations from the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee.

The following people received a Technical Achievement Award (Academy certificate):

• Clark F. Crites for the design and development of the ELF 1-C Endless Loop Film Transport and storage system.
• Dan Leimeter and Bob Weitz for the development and implementation of a Portable Adjustment Tool for T-Style Slit Lens Assemblies.
• Greg Hermanovic, Kim Davidson, Mark Elendt and Paul Breslin for the development of the procedural modeling and animation components of the Prisms software package.
• Jim Keating, Michael Wahrman and Richard Hollander for their contributions that led to the Wavefront Advanced Visualizer computer graphics system.
• James M. Reilly, Douglas W. Nishimura and Monique C. Fisher of the Rochester Institute of Technology for the creation of A-D Strips, a diagnostic tool for the detection of the presence of vinegar syndrome in processed acetate-based motion picture film.
• Philip C. Cory for the design and development of the Special Effects Spark Generator.
• Jim Frazier, for the concept, and Iain Neil and Rick Gelbard for the design and development of the Panavision/Frazier Lens System for motion picture photography.
• James F. Foley, Charles Converse and F. Edward Gardner of UCISCO; and to Bob Stoker and Matt Sweeney for the development and realization of the Liquid Synthetic Air system.
• Richard Chuang, Glenn Entis and Carl Rosendahl for the concept and architecture of the Pacific Data Images (PDI) Animation System.
• James A. Cashin, Roger Hibbard and Larry Jacobson for the design, development and implementation of a projection system analyzer.

The following people won Scientific And Engineering Awards (Academy Plaques):

• Eben Ostby, Bill Reeves, Sam Leffler and Tom Duff for the development of the Marionette Three-Dimensional Computer Animation System.
• Richard Shoup, Alvy Ray Smith and Thomas Porter for their pioneering efforts in the development of digital paint systems used in motion picture production.
• Kirk Handley, Ray Meluch, Scott Robinson, Wilson Allen and John Neary for the design, development and implementation of the Dolby CP500 Digital Cinema Processor.
• Craig Reynolds for his pioneering contributions to the development of three-dimensional computer animation for motion picture production.
• John Gibson, Rob Krieger, Milan Novacek, Glen Ozymok and Dave Springer for the development of the geometric modeling component of the Alias PowerAnimator system.
• Dominique Boisvert, Rejean Gagne, Daniel Langlois and Richard Laperriere for the development of the "Actor" animation component of the Softimage computer animation system.
• Bill Kovacs for his creative leadership and Roy Hall for his principal engineering efforts that led to the Wavefront Advanced Visualizer computer graphics system.
• Joel Johnson of the O'Connor Laboratories for the unique design improvement in fluid-head counter-balancing techniques as used in their Model 2575.
• Al Jensen, Chuck Headley, Jean Messner and Hazem Nabulsi of CEI Technology for the production of a self-contained, flicker-free, Color Video-Assist Camera.

And finally, the Academy awarded an Academy Award Of Merit (Oscar Statuette) to Gunnar P. Michelson for the engineering and development of an improved, electronic, high-speed, precision light valve for use in motion picture printing machines.