Computer-graphics leader Szymon Rusinkiewicz wins Schowalter Award

Szymon Rusinkiewicz, an expert in computer graphics and robotics, has received the 2023 Schowalter Award from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

The annual award recognizes a senior faculty member for outstanding contributions in research, teaching and service. It’s named for William Schowalter, the Class of 1950 Professor of Engineering, emeritus, and his wife Jane Schowalter. Schowalter, a pioneer in the field of fluid mechanics, has been a Princeton faculty member since 1957.

Szymon Rusinkiewicz. Photo by David Kelly Crow

Rusinkiewicz, the David M. Siegel ’83 Professor of Computer Science, works at the intersection of computers and the visual world, with a focus on rendering and fabrication of 3D shapes and motion. He is vice chair of the Department of Computer Science — Princeton’s largest academic department — and directs the Robotics and Intelligent Systems undergraduate certificate program. Over the past two years, he has played a key role in growing the engineering school’s interdisciplinary robotics initiative and in developing what will be the new home of the computer science department, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Hall.

“We are so grateful for Szymon’s contributions across research, teaching and service,” said Andrea Goldsmith, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. “The excellence and impact of his research, his going beyond the call of duty in teaching some of the most important classes in computer science and his outstanding service to the Department of Computer Science and the School of Engineering in multiple dimensions makes it a great pleasure to recognize Szymon with this award.”

Rusinkiewicz joined the Princeton faculty in 2001 after completing a doctorate at Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2021, and his research has been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation. In addition to his computer science appointment, he is an affiliated faculty member in the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics.