Image credit: SIGGRAPH Asia
We are beyond thrilled to introduce you to our incredible team of digital media experts who have come together to form the SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Committee. These brilliant minds are committed to bringing you nothing but the best content and event experience that will leave you in awe! Buckle up and get ready for an unforgettable journey with us this December in Sydney!
June Kim, Conference Chair, Associate Lecturer, UNSW Art & Design, Australia
June Kim joined UNSW Art and Design as an associate lecturer teaching media arts and interaction design in 2021 after working in the animation and VFX industry for about 10 years. Her interest in practice and research is in the function of immersion and simulation in human culture from historical and emerging perspectives. She has been serving ACM SIGGRAPH as International Resources Committee Chair and on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She was chair, juror, and reviewer for multiple programs at the SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia conferences for over a decade.
Fun fact: June is ambidextrous “plus,” supposedly. She can write with both hands, which is ambidextrous. To make it “plus,” she can read from left to right and right to left and write both directions naturally with both hands.
Deborah Lawler-Dormer, Art Gallery Chair, Research Manager, Powerhouse Museum, Australia
Deborah Lawler-Dormer is a research manager at the Powerhouse. Her curatorial experience spans 35 years and engages art, science, and technology in collaboration with industry, tertiary, and community partners. She was the lead curator for the exhibition “Invisible Revealed” (2022) developed with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. She is a visiting research fellow with the Expanded Perception and Interaction Centre at UNSW and adjunct research fellow at Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Recent publications include “Critical post-humanist practices from within the Museum” in “The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism” (2022).
Fun fact: I am a Groodle fan and have a new rescue puppy who is currently causing mayhem at home.
Deborah Tillman, Art Gallery Producer, Lecturer, UNSW Art & Design, Australia
Deb has been the Creative Director of New Media Curation since 2008, later joining the curatorial team at the Powerhouse Museum (2012–14). Her PhD (2018), examining disruption and experiential learning in curating, was awarded by the Creative Robotics Lab at UNSW.
An editor and author as well as a curator, she was awarded a tenure track lecturing position in media arts and curatorial in 2021 and is director of education and work integrated learning, both at the School of Art & Design. Research outcomes can be found here.
Fun fact: Deb is a serious Tiffany’s addict and is happy to join anyone there for breakfast at any time!
Victoria Szabo, Art Papers Chair, Research Professor, Duke University, United States
Victoria Szabo works on digital humanities and computational media with a focus on digital archives, exhibitions, and interactive media arts. She is part of the international Visualizing Cities Consortium and the Psychasthenia Studio art collective. She is past chair of the Digital Arts Community at SIGGRAPH and leads the Arts Advisory Group. She has also served as Art Gallery Chair and Art Papers Chair for SIGGRAPH in North America.
Fun fact: Victoria is a master’s rower and can be found out on the water in North Carolina many evenings and weekends.
Will Ramey, Business & Innovation Symposium Co-Chair, Sr. Director, Global Head of Developer Programs, NVIDIA, United States
Will Ramey is senior director at NVIDIA, where he leads global teams responsible for the NVIDIA Developer Program and Deep Learning Institute. Since joining the company in 2003, he has served in several technical and management roles, including several years as the first product manager for CUDA and NVIDIA’s developer tools. Prior to joining NVIDIA, he managed an independent game studio and developed advanced technology for the entertainment industry as a product manager and software engineer. He holds a degree in computer science from Willamette University and completed the Japan Studies Program at Tokyo International University.
Fun fact: Outside of work, Will enjoys playing piano, learning Spanish, and open-water swimming.
Liming Zhu, Business & Innovation Symposium Co-Chair, Research Director, CSIRO’s Data61 and Professor, UNSW, Australia
Professor Liming Zhu is a research director at CSIRO’s Data61 and a conjoint professor at UNSW. He is the chairperson of Standards Australia’s blockchain committee and on AI trustworthiness-related committees. His research program innovates in the areas of responsible/ethical AI, AI engineering, blockchain, regulation technology, quantum software, privacy, and cybersecurity. He has published over 300 papers and is writing his next two books on responsible AI and DevOps for AI.
Fun fact: Limingwas a Latin dance champion at his undergraduate university.
Herman Van Eyken, Computer Animation Festival Co-Chair, Director, Griffith Film School, Australia
Herman van Eyken has a background in script writing, producing, and directing. He has directed over 190 films — shortlisted within international competition of leading film festivals such as Cannes, New York, Montreal, and Vienna. Many of his films have received top awards in their respective categories. Herman’s research interests are in the areas of film policies, cross-cultural collaboration, and film training needs for professionals. He has served on the jury of several international competitions.
Fun fact: For them to know, for you to find out. 😉
Rob Coleman, Computer Animation Festival Co-Chair, Creative Director, Industrial Light & Magic, Australia
Rob Coleman is an Academy, BAFTA, and VES Award-nominated animation supervisor with a long history at Industrial Light & Magic serving as the creative director at its Sydney studio. He is a sought-after creative partner for filmmakers and a trusted leader, often overseeing scores of animators on any given project.
Rob worked directly with George Lucas on all three “Star Wars” films in the prequel trilogy, and later with Dave Filoni on “The Clone Wars” at Lucasfilm Animation. He returned to ILM after serving as head of animation at Animal Logic in Sydney, contributing to projects such as “The LEGO Movie,” “The LEGO Batman Movie,” and two Peter Rabbit films.
Fun fact: George Lucas named the Jedi Master, Coleman Trebor, after me. (“Trebor” is Robert backwards).
Karen Kriss, Computer Animation Festival Producer, Lecturer, UNSW Art & Design, Australia
Karen is a lecturer at UNSW Art and Design, Sydney, Australia, where she teaches animation and media arts subjects. Her background includes CG artist/animator and visual effects producer. Her current research projects include working with neurodivergent artists co-designing digital inclusion using participatory public space, with the most recent outcomes being large-scale projections for Vivid Sydney 2019 (DreamStates), 2022 (Crowded Cadmans), and a Storybox installation at Customs House in 2023.
Fun fact: Karen spends any free time she has in her studio making messy things with her hands. It’s a nice balance after working in software all day.
Pol Jeremias, Courses Chair, Engineer, Netflix, United States
Pol Jeremias Vila is a computer graphics engineer. He is currently building new real-time graphics technology at Netflix, and he is the co-founder of Shadertoy.com. Previously, he worked at Pixar where he contributed to the development of technologies such as USD/Hydra, OpenSubdiv, Storm, and Presto. Pol is credited in multiple films including “Luca,” “Soul,” “Toy Story 4,” “Incredibles 2,” “Coco,” “Finding Dory,” and more. Prior to filmmaking, Pol worked in rendering technology for multiple games including “Star Wars 1313” and “The Force Unleashed 2” at LucasArts.
Fun fact: Pol worked as a tennis instructor in his teens for young kids.
Joe Cincotta, Demoscene Chair, Managing Director — Thinking.Studio, Australia
During the day, Joe specializes in machine learning and data science for animal welfare and wildlife conservation research, but when he’s not playing with animals, he is writing demos! Joe started programming in 1983 and made his first “demo” in 1988 on the Commodore 64. Joe organized one of the very first Australian demoscene events in 1989 and continues to participate in the community today with events like Flashback, while still coding demos on multiple platforms (C64, Mega65, Amiga, and PC).
Fun fact: Joe’s first demoscene party was nearly shut down by police because some kids got caught writing their names on the front of the Commodore Business Machines factory which was near the party venue.
Simon See, Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair, Chief Solution Architect & Global Head for Nvidia AI Technology Center, NVIDIA Corporation, Singapore
Professor Simon See is currently the solution architecture and engineering director, chief solution architect, and global head for NVIDIA AI Technology Centre. He is also a professor and chief scientific computing officer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is currently involved in a number of smart city projects, especially in Singapore and China. His research interests are in the areas of high-performance computing, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational science, applied mathematics, and simulation methodology.
Fun fact: Simon is an avid golfer and runner but is NOT good at either one.
Aaron Quigley, Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair | Local Committee, Head of School, University of New South Wales, Australia
Aaron Quigley is the science director and deputy director of CSIRO’s Data61, previously the chair of Human-Computer Interaction at the University of St. Andrews, and head of school for the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales. With over 190 publications, he has expertise in discreet computing, global HCI, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, and information visualization. As an ACM Distinguished Member and IEEE Senior Member, he has chaired 30 international conferences and served on over 90 program committees.
Fun fact: While working as a junior high school teacher in Japan, Aaron was called on to be the local Santa Claus.
Mashhuda Glencross, Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair, Senior Lecturer, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia
Mashhuda Glencross is the director for teaching and learning in the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland and leads the graphics and visualization research in the school with a specific emphasis on technologies to support decision-making in the energy sector. With a background in industry-focused research, her work in computer graphics is supported through both industry-led and research grants. Her work has had commercial impacts across computer games, visual effects, displays, mobile phones, and image-based capture technologies.
Fun fact: Mashhuda did a skydive to support cancer research. Her team was called the Floating Pixies and included friends she made at SIGGRAPH!
Miho Aoki, Educator’s Forum Co-Chair, Associate Professor, University of Alaska, United States
Miho Aoki is an associate professor of computer art at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she teaches digital art and design courses. She has exhibited her artworks internationally and has received awards, including TOREI Digital Arts Awards Grand Prix. She is a member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Education, International Resources, and External Relations Committees. She is also the co-chair of the Massive Collaborative Animation Project steering committee.
Fun fact: Miho was a SIGGRAPH 1997 Los Angeles Student Volunteer.
Gregory Bennett, Educator’s Forum Co-Chair, Associate Head of School — Research, School of Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand
Gregory Bennett is the associate head of school for the School of Art and Design at AUT, New Zealand, where he teaches in the fields of motion capture and extended reality. He is also a practicing digital artist who exhibits internationally. His work has been featured at new media festivals such as ISEA, Supernova Digital Animation, Currents New Media, and Rencontres Internationales New Cinema and Contemporary Art Paris/Berlin.
Fun fact: Gregory first presented at the Educator’s Forum at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 in Yokohama.
Miu Ling Lam, Emerging Technologies Co-Chair, Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
Dr. Miu Ling Lam is a new media artist and researcher of computational imaging and robotics. She is a faculty and the programme director of Bachelor of Arts and Science in New Media at CityU School of Creative Media. She is serving on the consultation panels of various statutory bodies for arts and culture in Hong Kong, such as Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, and Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
Fun fact: Don’t get her wrong if you see Miu Ling close one of her eyes. While working as a researcher of autostereoscopic 3D displays, she was diagnosed with binocular diplopia (double vision), which caused a stereopsis impairment.
Kouta Minamizawa, Emerging Technologies Co-Chair, Professor, Keio University, Japan
After receiving his PhD from the University of Tokyo in 2010, Kouta joined Keio University Graduate School of Media Design and directs KMD Embodied Media Project, where he conducts research and social deployment of embodied media that transfer, enhance, and create human experiences with digital technologies. He promotes activities on haptic design and superhuman sports and also serves as a project manager of the cybernetic being project under the Moonshot R&D program.
Fun fact: Kouta grew up in the neighborhood of Tokyo Disneyland and became a lover of imagineering. That is the reason why he became a VR/HCI researcher and has been involved in emerging technologies for 18 years.
Mike Seymour, Featured Sessions Chair, Co-founder of Motus Lab, The University of Sydney, Australia
Mike is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, where he is co-director of the Motus Lab which researches digital humans and machine learning (ML). He does engaged research with international partners having spent many years in the entertainment industry prior to doing his PhD and returning to research. Mike lectures and consults with several Hollywood studios and media companies while also looking to take media ML tech and apply it in areas such as education and health.
Fun fact: Mike races yachts on Sydney Harbour, and he has dedicated his spare time to perfecting killer cocktails.
Stephen Spencer, Publications Chair, Graphics System Engineer, University of Washington, United States
Stephen is a senior computer specialist in the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, part of the IT support team. He’s been involved with ACM SIGGRAPH since the early ‘90s and has served as chair of the ACM SIGGRAPH Publications Committee for many years. Additionally, he has served two terms on the ACM Publications Board. He’s a father of two young adults, enjoys bicycling, running, and playing the guitar.
Fun fact: Stephen has run 11 full marathons.
Michela Ledwidge, Real-Time Live! Chair, Founder and CEO, Mod, Australia
Michela is a director and Internet pioneer who has been designing and building interactive titles for over three decades. She is co-founder of Sydney indie studio, Mod, specializing in real-time and virtual production. She set up the first website in NSW in 1993 and has been the creative and technical lead on numerous projects. Her most recent work is Grapho — a spatial visualization tool for graph storytelling.
Fun fact: Michela plays Esther Fitzgerald in the video game “Wayward Strand” (2022).
Scott Sleap, STEAM for Youth! Chair, Project Leader at STEM Industry School Partnerships (SISP), University of New South Wales, Australia
Dr. Scott Sleap is a celebrated STEM leader and education advisor with over 25 years of technology teaching experience. A Winston Churchill Fellow and recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching, he’s currently leading the establishment of the National Space and Deep Tech Centre. His passion for technology education drives his commitment to fostering future STEM professionals.
Fun fact: Dr. Sleap is a passionate space aficionado who embarked on a comprehensive tour of the U.S. in 2023, visiting numerous NASA locations and engaged with the National Space Council at the White House.
Emily Geisler, Student Volunteer Chair
Emily is an engineer based in Western Australia. She has been involved in the SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer programs in various capacities for close to a decade and is honored to be the Student Volunteer Chair for SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 in Sydney!
Fun fact: For them to know, for you to find out. 😉
Rewa Wright, Talks Chair, Senior Lecturer, Creative Practice (Film, Screen, Animation), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia
Rewa’s XR art installations have been included in the SIGGRAPH Asia Art Gallery (2019), Ars Electronica: In Kepler’s Gardens (2020-21), the Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium (2022), the Queensland XR Festival (2022), and several iterations of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (since 2014).
Fun fact: “Rewa” means to “meet in high places” in te reo Māori, which seems appropriate for this committee.
Rajesh Sharma, Technical Communications & Posters Chair, PhD Student, ETH Zurich/Disney Research Studios, Switzerland
Rajesh spent 23 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios in various management and individual contributor roles, including incubating and managing the Hyperion renderer team and driving development for tools like XGen, Paint3D, hair (tonic, beast), cloth, snow (Matterhorn), and water (Splash) simulation.
Afterwards, he was the VP of engineering at Spire Animation Studios where he led the engineering efforts to enable artists to create high-quality feature animation content using new workflows and game engine technology. Recently, Rajesh joined ETH Zurich as a PhD student where he conducts research at the intersection of rendering and machine learning at Disney Research.
Fun fact: Rajesh has attended all SIGGRAPHs since 1994!
Ming Lin, Technical Papers Chair, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, United States
Ming C. Lin received her BS, MS, and PhD in EECS from University of California, Berkeley. She is a Distinguished University Professor, Dr. Barry Mersky, and Capital One E-Nnovate Endowed Professor, and former Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science at University of Maryland at College Park, as well as John & Louise Parker Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also an Amazon Scholar. She has received several honors and awards, including NSF Young Faculty Career Award, UNC Hettleman Award for Scholarly Achievements, Beverly W. Long Distinguished Term Professor, IEEE VGTC VR Technical Achievement Award, Washington Academy of Sciences Distinguished Career Award and several best paper awards. She is a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, ACM, IEEE, Eurographics, ACM SIGGRAPH Academy, and IEEE VR Academy.
Fun fact: Ming used to be a chef for 80–90 people in a very large all-women co-op house at Berkeley when she was a student there.
Bernd Bickel, Technical Papers Assistant Chair, Head of Computer Graphics and Digital Fabrication, Institute of Science and Technology, Austria
Bernd is currently heading the computer graphics and digital fabrication group at ISTA and is an incoming professor for computational design at ETH Zurich. He has a particular interest in computer graphics at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, machine learning, materials science, and digital fabrication. He received the ACM SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award in 2017 and a technical achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019.
Fun fact: The first computer Bernd used was a Sinclair, released the same year he was born.
Mark Billinghurst, XR Co-Chair, Director of the Empathic Computing Laboratory and Professor, University of South Australia, New Zealand
Mark is director of the Empathic Computing Laboratory and professor at both the University of South Australia, Australia, and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He conducts research on empathic computing, augmented and virtual reality, and collaborative systems. He has been involved with ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia for nearly 20 years in a number of different roles, including as the XR Chair twice.
Fun fact: Mark had his first VR experience in 1989 and has been using the technology to try and change the world for good ever since.
Christian Sandor, XR Co-Chair, Professor, Université Paris-Saclay, France
Dr. Christian Sandor is a professor at Université Paris-Saclay and the leader of the VENISE team at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Since the year 2000, his foremost research interest is augmented reality, as he believes that it will have a profound impact on the future of mankind. In 2021, he was named “Associate Editor of the Year” by IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
Fun fact: Christian wrote his first OpenGL program in 1996, running on a Linux computer with a 3DFX card.
Anna Tow, Local Committee Member, Associate Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia
Anna is an artist, animator, writer, and director, and currently convenes the 3D Visualization and Media Arts Project stream at UNSW School of Art and Design. Anna’s animations have been screened at international film festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, Palm Springs, and the Australian Effects & Animation Festival. Anna has worked for The Disney Channel, Network 10, the Australian Broadcast Association, and Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Fun fact: Anna has an open water diving certificate (she’s overdue for a refresher!) and has experienced diving among the amazingly beautiful underwater sea life of the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney coastline.
Luc Betbeder-Matibet, Local Committee Member, Director ResTech, University of New South Wales, Australia
Luc Betbeder-Matibet is a nationally recognized subject matter expert in eResearch, university research data management, and shared services for researchers. He has held director-level roles for 15 years. In his role as director research technology services at UNSW, he is responsible for research computing and research data. He is an adjunct in UNSW Faculty of Medicine Centre for Big Data and has been a visiting scientist with the Visual Analytics Team in CSIRO Data61.
Fun fact: Luc can make you a perfect gin martini or negroni.
Patricia Kung, Local Committee, Talent Acquisition, DNEG Sydney and Professional Development Lecturer, JMC Academy, Australia
Patricia has been working in animation and VFX for the past 19 years in recruitment/talent acquisition at studios such as DNEG Sydney, Wētā FX, and Animal Logic. Helping the next generation of practitioners enter the industry, Patricia has recently moved into education teaching the professional development unit at JMC Academy and part of the IGEA Educators working group. Patricia’s mission is to connect people, situations, experiences, and the dots!
Fun fact: Patricia is always on the lookout for good doughnuts!
Sudarshan Ramachandran, Local Committee, Country Manager — Enterprise, NVIDIA, Australia
With 20 years in the supercomputing industry, Sudarshan has a technical foundation starting as a system engineer at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) in Melbourne and progressed to team leadership, project management, and business development roles. Sudarshan was the country manager for Mellanox Technologies for eight years prior to being acquired by NVIDIA and is an expert in high-performance computing (HPC), cloud and AI infrastructure. Sudarshan graduated from the Melbourne University and holds a bachelor’s in mechatronics and computer science and a master’s in business and IT.
Fun fact: My favorite movie is a tie between “Toy Story” and “Cars”!
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