Ivan Sutherland

Sketchpad, though written twenty-five years ago, introduced many techniques still important today. These include a display file for screen refresh, a recursively traversed hierarchical structure for modeling graphical objects, recursive methods for geometric transformations, and an object oriented programming style. Later innovations include a "Lorgnette" for viewing stereo or colored images, and elegant algorithms for registering digitized views, clipping polygons, and representing surfaces with hidden lines.

Dr. Sutherland has had a lasting impact on the field of computer graphics through a set of techniques and algorithms that are in widespread use, a company and product that have led the industry, and numerous colleagues and students who have been taught and inspired by him.