Ivan Sutherland
Ivan E. Sutherland is widely known for his pioneering contributions. His 1963 MIT PhD thesis, Sketchpad, opened the field of computer graphics. His 1966 work, with Sproull, on a head-mounted display anticipated today's virtual reality by 25 years. He co-founded Evans and Sutherland, which manufactures the most advanced computer image generators now in use. As head of Computer Science Department of Caltech he helped make integrated circuit design an acceptable field of academic study. Dr. Sutherland is on the boards of several small companies and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, the ACM and IEEE. He received the ACM's Turing Award in 1988. He is now Vice President and Fellow of Sun Microsystems Laboratories in Mountain View, CA, USA.