Event Location: NSH 3305
Bio: Henrik Wann Jensen is an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego, where he is teaching computer graphics. His research is focused on realistic image synthesis, global illumination, rendering of natural phenomena, and appearance modeling. He is the author of “Realistic Image Synthesis using Photon Mapping,” AK Peters 2001. He has rendered images that have appeared on the frontcovers of the SIGGRAPH proceedings (2001) and National Geographic Magazine (2002), and rendered three animations that have been shown in the SIGGRAPH electronic theater (1998,2000,2001). Previously, he was a consultant at Weta Digital from 2008-2009, a research associate at Stanford University from 1999-2002, a consultant at Pixar in 2001, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1998-1999, and a research scientist in industry working on commercial rendering software from 1996-1998. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Denmark in 1996. In 2004, Professor Jensen received an Academy Award (Technical Achievement Award) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for pioneering research in rendering translucent materials. He also became a Sloan Fellow and he was selected as one of the top 10 scientists in 2004 by Popular Science magazine.

Abstract: Photorealistic rendering is an important research area in computer graphics, wherein a photographic image is generated from a 3-dimensional description of a scene. This involves answering questions such as why the sky is blue, why grass appears green, and what determines the color of human skin. Having an understanding of how light interacts with materials allows us to simulate the appearance of these materials.

In this talk, I will describe some of our recent work in simulating the appearance of materials such as human skin, hair, milk, and ice. I will show how recent advances makes it possible to render a human face, which is particularly challenging, since human observers are highly sensitive to the appearance of faces – a challenge known as the uncanny valley. Finally, I will present new research for predicting the appearance of materials based on their molecular structure in order to answer the question: “what will it look like if I mix these molecules together”?