From Deseret News archives:
Graphic wiz riding wave a long time
About Utah
But he freely admits there were some things he was completely clueless about 30-plus years ago when he moved to Salt Lake City to take a job as an engineer with the computer company of Evans & Sutherland and subsequently study for his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Utah.
He didn't envision winning an Academy Award for technical achievement, which he won in 1997 for helping develop a breakthrough in computer-graphic rendering of hair and fur, "because back then there was no such thing as Academy Awards for computer graphics."
He didn't envision working for computer science giant Microsoft "because Microsoft didn't exist."
And he sure didn't envision flying from Seattle to Salt Lake City this weekend so he could be inducted into the Utah Technology Council's Hall of Fame.
Dr. Kajiya and biotechnology wizard Dr. Dinesh Patel will be the 21st and 22nd distinguished individuals inducted into the nonprofit organization's honor roll at a sold-out black-tie banquet tonight at Little America Hotel, where the featured speaker will be Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
It's heady company for Kajiya, who had dropped out of college in 1973 when he came to Salt Lake from his native southern California.
David Evans and Ivan Sutherland, the partners and namesakes of Evans & Sutherland, took a keen interest in their new hire. Seeing his obvious talent, they made the necessary introductions with the U. of U.'s engineering and computer science department to make sure he went back to school.
"Luckily, I had people who believed in me," says Kajiya.
His thesis research at the U. — and I'm quoting here from his Microsoft biography — "applied Lie group representation theory to the modeling of the human visual system as a signal processing system to explain a wide range of phenomena in monochrome brightness perception and predict several new visual illusions and phenomena."
In other words, he started to learn how to make digital pictures.
For Kajiya, looking back three decades later is like looking into prehistoric life.
"Twenty or 30 years ago we couldn't make realistic pictures," he says. "Now that we understand the science behind making digital pictures, and we do understand it pretty well, we can make realistic pictures."
Few have ridden the computer graphics wave any longer or better than Jim Kajiya, as his armload of awards (including Oscar) and his commanding position at the foremost computer company in the world suggest.
But he still looks back on that relatively clueless time in Salt Lake City "as some of the happiest years of my life."
"I didn't get into computer science because it was a good career," he says. "Back then no one knew it would be. I did it because I loved the subject; I thought it was really cool. That's why I got into it, and I think that's why anyone should get into it today."
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
