Abhijeet Ghosh is the 2007 recipient of the Alain Fournier Ph.D. Thesis Award. His thesis, entitled “Realistic Materials and Illumination Environments”, made several outstanding research contributions to computer graphics. His novel optical setup for measuring surface reflectance without moving parts, while optically filtering them into basis functions, won the honourable mention for the prestigious Marr
Prize at the International Conference on Computer Vision in 2007. Amongst other significant contributions in the dissertation, Abhijeet introduced sampling techniques for direct illumination and environment maps that drastically improve convergence rates, he adapted image processing algorithms for high dynamic range displays, and he demonstrated how active control of room illumination based on dynamic scene content can increase the sense of presence and immersion in a virtual environment.
Abhijeet completed his B.E. in computer science and engineering at Gujarat University in India, his M.S. in computer science at Stony Brook University under the supervision of Dr. Arie Kaufman, and his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Wolfgang Heidrich. As a graduate student, Abhijeet has been a leader involved with various departmental and laboratory committees, and has already served on three program committees of international conferences. Abhijeet has now joined the graphics laboratory of Paul Debevec at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies.