Abhijeet Ghosh, a computer scientist with the Graphics Lab at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, has been named the winner of the 2007 Alain Fournier Thesis Award.

The prize recognizes the top Ph.D dissertation in the area of computer graphics earned at a Canadian university last year.

In announcing the award, the committee cited Ghosh’s novel and significant research contributions to the field of computer graphics.

Ghosh’s dissertation focused on the realistic rendering pipeline – the steps involved in measuring, computing and displaying properties of light and reflectance in order to make convincing digital copies of real-world objects. His innovations allow for more accurate modeling so that computer-generated images can appear more real.

“We congratulate Abhijeet on this tremendous honor and feel fortunate to have him as part of our team,” said Randall W. Hill Jr., executive director of the institute. ”The fact this top international talent has chosen to continue his pioneering work here at USC is a testament to the cutting-edge and relevant work being performed at the ICT Graphics Lab.”

Alain Fournier is considered the father of computer graphics in Canada and was a leading international figure in the field. He began the computer graphics program at the University of British Columbia, where Ghosh earned his doctorate.

After Fournier’s death in 2000, this award was established to “celebrate his life, to commemorate his accomplishments and honor his memory.”

“Alan Fournier is a very inspirational figure in the field, and it is an honor to be associated with an award with his name on it,” said Ghosh, who joined the Graphics Lab last fall.

Ghosh had completed an internship at USC in 2003 and credited his earlier time at the institute for shaping his award-winning dissertation.

“Being here changed my research direction,” he said. “I had been working in a different area but became fascinated with the discipline of realistic rendering, making beautiful images based on physics and optics.”

The ICT Graphics Lab develops lighting techniques (involving photographic and computer-based methods) to yield virtual reality simulations and characters that appear to be real.

In addition to lighting techniques, the lab also works on methods to digitize light reflectance properties of objects. The lab has collaborated with Hollywood film producers and visual effects supervisors to create realistic lighting for computer graphics characters in such movies as The Matrix and SpiderMan 2.

“Abhijeet’s work presents a fundamentally new way of measuring how surfaces reflect light to and from all directions – surfaces such as car paint, wood, brushed metal, leaves, and skin – making it much easier to digitize realistic materials to be used in simulations, visual effects and interactive entertainment,” said Paul Debevec, director of the lab.

Ghosh is now focusing on realistic modeling of scenes and people so that they can be successfully composited in virtual spaces. Working with human faces, he said, is one of the big challenges.

“People are used to looking at faces, hence subtle differences stand out,” he said. “One really has it get it right. Otherwise people will recognize that it is computer generated.”