Alain Fournier (1943–2000) was a

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

researcher.

Biography

Alain Fournier was born on November 5, 1943, in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. He was married twice, first to Beverly Bickle (married 1968, divorced 1984) and later to Adrienne Drobnies, with whom he had one daughter, Ariel. Fournier's early training was in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, culminating in a B.Sc. from

INSA The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) is a non-profit, nonpartisan 501(c)(6) professional organization based in Arlington Virginia for public and private sector members of the United States Intelligence Community. History ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in 1965. After emigrating from France to

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada in the 1970s, he co-wrote a textbook on chemistry, and taught the subject in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. His career in computer graphics spanned only about 20 years. In 1980 he received a Ph.D. in computer science from the

University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...

under the supervision of Zvi Meir Kedem, and with Donald Fussell and

Loren Carpenter Loren C. Carpenter (born February 7, 1947) is a computer graphics researcher and developer. Biography He was a co-founder and chief scientist of Pixar Animation Studios. He is the co-inventor of the Reyes rendering algorithm and is one of the ...

reported the results of his Ph.D. work on stochastic modelling in a seminal paper in 1980. He then went on to an outstanding academic career, first at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

as part of the

Dynamic Graphics Project The Dynamic Graphics Project (commonly referred to as dgp) is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the University of Toronto devoted to projects involving Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Human Computer Interaction, and Visualization. ...

and subsequently at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. He has contributed to

ACM Transactions on Graphics ''ACM Transactions on Graphics'' (TOG) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers the field of computer graphics. It was established in 1982 and is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. TOG publishes two special ...

as an author, as co-guest editor of a special issue in 1987, and, from 1990 to 1992, as an associate editor. Fournier made contributions to computer graphics dealing with modelling of natural phenomena. He advocated a methodology that required validation against real visual phenomena. He once called his approach ''impressionistic graphics'' and it both revolutionized the field and drove it forward. An example is his beautiful paper (with

Bill Reeves William Reeves (22 June 1875 – 22 March 1944) was an English cricketer, who at the conclusion of his playing career became an umpire, officiating in five Test Matches. According to Dudley Carew he was "the Sam Weller of umpires, quick of re ...

) on the depiction of

ocean waves In fluid dynamics, a wind wave, water wave, or wind-generated water wave, is a surface wave that occurs on the free surface of bodies of water as a result from the wind blowing over the water surface. The contact distance in the direction o ...

. His subsequent work dealt with

illumination model {{Short description, none This article lists common shading algorithms used in computer graphics. Interpolation techniques These techniques can be combined with any illumination model: * Flat shading * Gouraud shading * Phong shading Illuminatio ...

s, light transport, rendering, and sampling and filtering. Fournier died of

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

in the early hours of August 14, 2000, in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

2001 Proceedings were dedicated to Fournier. The first Alain Fournier Award for the best Canadian doctoral dissertation in computer graphics was awarded to Michael P. Neff on June 8, 2006, at the Graphics Interface 2006 conference in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

Publications

Fournier published 32 scholarly papers about computer graphics.
Bibliography for Alain Fournier

Photo

*http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/imager/imager-web/Dedications/Alain/AlainExpress.gif {{DEFAULTSORT:Fournier, Alain 1943 births 2000 deaths Scientists from Lyon Computer graphics professionals Computer graphics researchers French computer scientists Canadian computer scientists University of Toronto faculty University of Texas at Dallas alumni French emigrants to Canada University of British Columbia faculty