Andries van Dam

Andries van Dam is the Thomas J. Watson Jr., University Professor of Technology and Education and Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. He has been a member of Brown's faculty since 1965 and is a founder of Brown's Computer Science Department, serving as its first Chairman from 1979 to 1985. From 2002 to 2006, he served as Brown's first Vice President for Research. He received a B.S. degree (with Honors) in Engineering Sciences from Swarthmore College in 1960 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966.

Van Dam's research spans computer graphics, hypermedia systems, post-WIMP user interfaces (including pen-centric computing), and educational software. For over four decades, he has worked on systems for creating and reading electronic books with interactive illustrations for educational and research purposes. His work includes the development of graphics standards like the SIGGRAPH Core graphics library and PHIGS+, which helped unite researchers across different organizations. He co-authored the seminal textbook "Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice" and has published over a hundred scientific articles.

His research encompasses immersive virtual reality interaction, gesture-based user interfaces, and pioneering work in hypertext dating back to HES in 1967. His hypertext research led to systems like HES, FRESS, EDS, and IRIS Intermedia, which predated and surpassed features of the modern web. His educational software includes Exploratories, GTT (Graphics Teaching Tool), MathPad, ChemPad, and Immune Attack, along with theoretical frameworks like Clip Models for next-generation educational software.

• Society for Information Display's Special Recognition Award (1974)
• IEEE Centennial Medal (1984)
• National Computer Graphics Association's Academic Award (1990)
• ACM SIGGRAPH Steven A. Coons Award (1991)
• ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award (1994)
• IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1999)
• ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education (2000)

Van Dam has mentored numerous students and collaborators who became leaders in computer science. His research has been supported by major funding from NSF, NASA, DOE, Microsoft, and other organizations, totaling millions of dollars across dozens of projects. He has also been instrumental in establishing conferences, including co-founding the distributed computing workshops at Brown that evolved into the IEEE ICDCS conferences.