Mary Whitton

American computer scientist

Mary C. Whitton is an American computer scientist specializing in computer graphics and human–computer interaction, especially concerning redirected walking in virtual worlds. She is a research professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, the co-founder of two graphics hardware companies, and the former president of ACM SIGGRAPH.^[1]

Education and career

Whitton majored in religion as an undergraduate at Duke University,^[2] graduating in 1970.^[3] She initially worked as a middle-school mathematics teacher, and earned a teaching-related master's degree from North Carolina State University in 1974.^[4] In the same year, she married computer graphics researcher Nick England, and through him became interested in computer graphics.^[5] In 1976, she began studying computer graphics at North Carolina State, eventually earning a second master's degree in 1984. Meanwhile, she and England cofounded Ikonas Graphics Systems in 1978,^[4] which made what has been described as the first general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU).^[5]

Ikonas was purchased by Adage, Inc., in 1982,^[5] and in 1986 Whitton and England cofounded another company, Trancept Systems, producing graphics hardware for Sun Microsystems computers. Trancept was in turn acquired by Sun Microsystems a year later,^[6] and Whitton became a director of marketing for Sun.^[4]

Whitton became president of ACM SIGGRAPH for the 1993–1995 term.^[1]^[7] In 1995, she took her present position as research professor at the University of North Carolina.^[4]^[2] With Fred Brooks, she founded a research center in "effective virtual environments" in approximately 1998.^[2]

Recognition

Whitton was a recipient of the 2013 SIGGRAPH Outstanding Service Award.^[7] The North Carolina State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering elected Whitton to their alumni hall of fame in 2016.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "Mary C. Whitton, Research Professor", People, University of North Carolina Computer Science, retrieved 2023-05-30
^ ^a ^b ^c "Member Profile: Mary Whitton", Inside SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGGRAPH, retrieved 2023-05-30
^ "Mary Whitton", IEEE Xplore, IEEE, April 2020, retrieved 2023-05-30
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Mary C. Whitton", Hall of Fame 2016, NC State University Electrical and Computer Engineering, retrieved 2023-05-30
^ ^a ^b ^c England, Nick (May 2020), "The graphics system for the 80's", IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 40 (3), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): 112–119, doi:10.1109/mcg.2020.2983816
^ Trancept Systems Inc., NC State University Electrical and Computer Engineering, retrieved 2023-05-30
^ ^a ^b SIGGRAPH 2013 Outstanding Service Award: Whitton, ACM SIGGRAPH, retrieved 2023-05-30