Peter Shirley (born 1963) is an American computer scientist and

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. He is a Distinguished Scientist at

NVIDIA Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

and adjunct professor at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in computer science. He has made extensive contributions to interactive photorealistic rendering. His textbook, '' Fundamentals of Computer Graphics'', is considered one of the leading introductory texts on computer graphics and is currently in the fourth edition.

Biography

Shirley was born on June 11, 1963, in Evanston, Illinois. He attended the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lab School (now the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School), Nichols Middle School, and

Evanston Township High School Evanston Township High School (ETHS) District 202, is a four-year public high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS was established in 1883 and serves the city of Evanston ...

. After one semester at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

, he transferred to

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in Portland, Oregon, where received his BA in physics in 1985, and then received his PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1991. He then joined the faculty at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

as an assistant professor. From 1994 to 1996 he was a visiting professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. He then joined the faculty at the

, where he taught until 2008 when he joined

as a research scientist.

Books

* P. Shirley, ''Ray Tracing in One Weekend''. 2016. Amazon Kindle books. * S. Marschner and P. Shirley, ''Fundamentals of Computer Graphics'', 4th Ed. 2015. Taylor & Francis. * P. Shirley and S. Marschner, ''Fundamentals of Computer Graphics'', 3rd Ed. 2009. AK Peters. * K. Sung, P. Shirley, S. Baer. Essentials of Interactive Computer Graphics, 2008. AK Peters * P. Shirley, ''Fundamentals of Computer Graphics'', 2nd Ed. 2005. AK Peters. * P. Shirley, R. Morley, ''Realistic Ray Tracing'', 2nd Ed. 2003. AK Peters. * P. Shirley, ''Fundamentals of Computer Graphics''. 2002. AK Peters. * P. Shirley, ''Realistic Ray Tracing''. 2000. AK Peters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, Peter Living people American computer scientists Computer graphics researchers Reed College alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni Indiana University faculty Cornell University faculty University of Utah faculty Nvidia people Scientists from Chicago 1963 births Engineers from Illinois