Pat Hanrahan

Pat Hanrahan is a computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algorithms, graphics processing units, as well as scientific illustration and visualization. Hanrahan received a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985. In the 1980s, he worked at the New York Institute of T... more

Pat Hanrahan is a computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algorithms, graphics processing units, as well as scientific illustration and visualization. Hanrahan received a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985. In the 1980s, he worked at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Laboratory, Digital Equipment Corporation, and at Pixar. In 1989, he joined the faculty of Princeton University. In 1995, he moved to Stanford University. As a founding employee at Pixar Animation Studios in the 1980s, Hanrahan was part of the design of the RenderMan Interface Specification and the RenderMan Shading Language. More recently, Hanrahan has served as a co-founder and CTO of Tableau Software. He has been involved with several Pixar productions, including Tin Toy, The Magic Egg, and Toy Story. In 2005,... less