Mary C. Whitton is an American computer scientist specializing in

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 ...

and

human–computer interaction Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design tec ...

, especially concerning

redirected walking Redirected walking is a virtual reality locomotion technique that enables users to explore a virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a per ...

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

s. She is a research professor of computer science at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

, the co-founder of two

graphics hardware Graphics hardware is computer hardware that generates computer graphics and allows them to be shown on a display, usually using a graphics card (video card) in combination with a device driver to create the images on the screen. Types Grap ...

companies, and the former president of

ACM SIGGRAPH ACM SIGGRAPH is the international Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques based in New York. It was founded in 1969 by Andy van Dam (its direct predecessor, ACM SICGRAPH was f ...

Education and career

Whitton majored in religion as an undergraduate at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, graduating in 1970. She initially worked as a middle-school mathematics teacher, and earned a teaching-related master's degree from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

in 1974. In the same year, she married computer graphics researcher Nick England, and through him became interested in computer graphics. In 1976, she began studying computer graphics at North Carolina State, eventually earning a second master's degree in 1984. Meanwhile, she and England cofounded Ikonas Graphics Systems in 1978, which made what has been described as the first general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU). Ikonas was purchased by Adage, Inc., in 1982, and in 1986 Whitton and England cofounded another company, Trancept Systems, producing graphics hardware for

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

computers. Trancept was in turn acquired by Sun Microsystems a year later, and Whitton became a director of marketing for Sun. Whitton became president of

for the 1993–1995 term. In 1995, she took her present position as research professor at the

. With

Fred Brooks Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the O ...

, she founded a research center in "effective virtual environments" in approximately 1998.

Recognition

Whitton was a recipient of the 2013 SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award. The North Carolina State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering elected Whitton to their alumni hall of fame in 2016.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitton, Mary Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists American women computer scientists Computer graphics researchers Duke University alumni North Carolina State University alumni University of North Carolina faculty