Donald Peter Greenberg (born 1934) is the

Jacob Gould Schurman Jacob Gould Schurman (May 2, 1854 – August 12, 1942) was a Canadian-born American educator and diplomat, who served as President of Cornell University and United States Ambassador to Germany. Early life Schurman was born at Freetown, Prince Ed ...

Professor of

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 ...

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 ...

Early life

Greenberg earned his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from

, where he played on the tennis and soccer teams and was a member of

Tau Delta Phi Tau Delta Phi (), whose members are commonly known as Tau Delts, is a national social fraternity founded on , in New York City. Since its inception, dozens of chapters have been founded and thousands of men initiated into its membership. Today, T ...

and the

Quill and Dagger Quill and Dagger is a senior honor society at Cornell University. It is often recognized as one of the most prominent societies of its type, along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key at Yale University. In 1929, ''The New York Times'' stated ...

society.

Career

In the late 1960s, Greenberg constructed the so-called "flying diaper" sculpture, which currently stands at the entrance of the Cornell Botanic Gardens. Greenberg joined the Cornell faculty in 1968 with a joint appointment in the

College of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education ( bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations tha ...

and Department of Architecture. In 1971, Greenberg produced an early sophisticated computer graphics movie, ''Cornell in Perspective'', using the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

Visual Simulation Laboratory with the assistance of its director,

classmate Rodney S. Rougelot. Greenberg also co-authored a series of papers on the Cornell Box. An internationally recognized pioneer in computer graphics, Greenberg has authored hundreds of articles and served as a teacher and mentor to many prominent computer graphic artists and animators. Five former students have won Academy Awards for Scientific or Technical Achievements, five have won the SIGGRAPH Achievement Award, and many now work for

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

Animation Studios. Greenberg was the founding director of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization when it was created in 1991. His former students include

Robert L. Cook Robert L. Cook (December 10, 1952) is a computer graphics researcher and developer, and the co-creator of the RenderMan rendering software. His contributions are considered to be highly influential in the field of animated arts. In 2009, Cook ...

, Marc Levoy, and Wayne Lytle. He has been the Director of the Program of Computer Graphics for thirty-two years and was the originator and former Director of the Computer Aided Design Instructional Facility at Cornell University. Greenberg received the

Steven Anson Coons Steven Anson Coons (March 7, 1912 – August 1979) was an early pioneer in the field of computer graphical methods. He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He was also a professor ...

Award in 1987, the most prestigious award in the field of

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 ...

. Prior to teaching at Cornell, Greenberg was a consulting engineer with Severud Associates, working on famous structures like the St. Louis Arch and Madison Square Garden. Greenberg has served as a visiting professor at ETH Zurich and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He is on the board of directors of the

Interactive Data Corporation ICE Data Services (formerly known as Interactive Data) was an American 1960s-founded Time-sharing services company that later became known for providing financial market data (financial data vendor), analytics and related solutions to financial ...

and

Chyron Corporation The Chyron Corporation, formerly ChyronHego Corporation, headquartered in Melville, New York, is a company that specializes in broadcast graphics creation, playout, and real-time data visualization for live television, news, weather, and sports ...

. He holds membership in the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, SIGGRAPH, and

Eurographics Eurographics is a Europe-wide professional computer graphics association. The association supports its members in advancing the state of the art in computer graphics and related fields such as multimedia, scientific visualization and human–compu ...

. He was named a fellow of ACM in 1995. He currently teaches a Virtual reality course cross listed under 4 departments at Cornell- Architecture, Art, Computer Science and Engineering.

References

Greenberg Faculty Biography

Greenberg Vita

''True Big Red: Professor Don Greenberg '55'' video

* * ttp://www.graphics.cornell.edu/TheHyparTurns50FINAL.pdf Hyperbolic Paraboloid* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Donald P. American soccer players Computer graphics professionals Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Cornell University faculty Johnson School faculty Cornell Big Red men's soccer players Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery 1934 births Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Association footballers not categorized by position