Pierre Poulin
Over the past 30 years, Pierre Poulin has made lasting and varied contributions to the field of computer graphics, in the three fundamental fields of rendering, modeling and animation. In his work, he has consistently sought to push the boundaries of realism, simulation, efficiency, hierarchies, and user control for the benefit of creators. He has also played a leading role in the development of the community of computer graphics researchers through his research mentorship activities and his sustained organizational efforts in support of research in Canada and abroad.
Mr. Poulin has served the community in a variety of ways, including serving as Vice-President of the Canadian Society for Human-Machine Dialogue since 2002 and Theme Leader of the GRAND Consortium. Since 2005, he has been responsible for the Alain-Fournier prize, which rewards the best doctoral thesis in Canada in computer graphics. He has supervised many computer graphics students, including 19 PhDs, 44 MScs and 28 MScs in Europe. He has co-chaired conferences such as Graphics Interface 2000, Computer Graphics International 2011, Eurographics 2013 and Computer Animation and Social Agents 2014, is an associate editor of the scientific journals Computers & Graphics, Computer Graphics Forum and Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds as well as participated in 64 international conference program committees. He has also been the driving force behind collaborations with many French research laboratories in computer graphics.
Pierre Poulin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operational Research (DIRO) at the Université de Montréal, where he has been teaching since 1994. He was director of the department from 2017 to 2021, during which time he contributed to the hired 11 faculty members and guided the unit through major expansion of Mila and machine learning, which doubled enrollment in most of DIRO's computer science programs. He obtained a bachelor's degree from Université Laval in 1986, a master's degree from the University of Toronto in 1989 and a doctorate from the University of British Columbia in 1993, all in computer science. He did a brief stay in 1994 as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University with Professor Pat Hanrahan.
The Human-Computer Dialogue Society of Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing research and education in the fields of computer graphics, computer visualization, and human-computer interaction.
