Nadia Magnenat Thalmann

Research

Nadia Magnenat Thalmann has made early contributions in computer graphics during her PhD by simulating and visualizing 3D electronic densities of the Schrödinger equation's approximate solutions (1977). Later on, she pioneered the modelling of realistic Virtual Humans, particularly producing the first simulation of a 3D version of Marilyn Monroe in the film Rendez-vous in Montreal (1987) and showing her work at the Modern Art Museum in New York in 1988 along with Canadian computer artists.

She published several landmark papers on facial and body deformation methods and cloth simulation. She made several original contributions in MRI segmentation methods correlated with clinical findings. She also modelled the simulation of Virtual Ballerinas where their hip cartilage deformations can be visualized while dancing. More recently, she has worked on the social autonomous robot Nadine, modeled in her image, that is able to speak, recognize people and gestures, express mood and emotions, and remember actions. Nadine is being shown at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.

Biography

Nadia Magnenat Thalmann received a MS in Psychology, a MS in Biology and a Master in Biochemistry at the University of Geneva. She obtained a PhD in Quantum Physics in 1977 from the same University. She started her career as an Assistant Professor at the University Laval, then became a Professor at HEC, University of Montreal until 1988. In 1989, she moved to the University of Geneva where she founded the MIRALab laboratory.

She is currently Director of the Institute for Media Innovation at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Thalmann has authored and co-authored more than 600 papers in the area of Virtual Humans, social robots, VR, and 3D simulation of articulations (CV ). She has participated in more than 45 European research projects and led quite a few of them. She has served the Computer Graphics community by creating the Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA) in Geneva in 1988, as well as managing Computer Graphics International (CGI), both of which are internationally well known conferences. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal “The Visual Computer” published by Springer, Germany.

Honors and awards

Thalmann has received more than 30 honors and awards such as "Woman of the Year", for early original contribution in computer graphics in Montreal (1987). More recently, she was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa in Natural sciences from the Leibniz University of Hanover (2009), an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Ottawa (2010) and a Career Achievement Award from the Canadian Human Computer Communications Society in Toronto (2012). The same year she received the prestigious Humboldt Research Award in Germany, given to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. She has also produced several award winning films, among them "Virtual Marilyn" at the Golden Camera Ceremony in Berlin. Her film "High Fashion in Equations" has won the CGI 2007 Best International Scientific Video award and was shown in the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre in the same year. Nadine, her Social Robot, has received more than 1.2 million video views online, and over 200 publications in international media.