Chris is a software engineer who has worked across a number of industries and roles. He began his career at Drexel University, where he was an Associate Professor in the College of Media Arts and Design. Since leaving academia, he has worked in engineering and R&D departments at Tippett Studio, PDI/DreamWorks, Jaunt, Samsung Research, Unity, Netflix, and is currently at Apple. Chris has also been actively involved in the ACM SIGGRAPH Conference for a number of years, serving as Immersive Pavilion Chair and General Submissions Chair prior to his current role as Conference Chair.

Everardo Reyes is a Full Professor (Professeur des universités) in the Digital Humanities Dept. at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. Since 2003, he has been a member of Paragraphe Lab, a transdisciplinary research laboratory in Paris, France. He is also a collaborator member of the Cultural Analytics Lab, Board Member of the International Association for Visual Semiotics (IAVS), and Secretary of the Board of ISEA International (International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Arts).

His research investigates relationships between humanities, the arts, social and computer sciences. Reyes is particularly interested in visual expressions and the description of their meaning within a practical context: graphical interfaces, media visualization, Art, Science, and Technology, digital text, Web design, and hypermedia systems. In his work, Reyes combines semiotic theory and applied experiments using software and programming languages using visual computing techniques.

Among his research activities, Reyes started the Web Studies Congress (Toluca 2010, Paris 2018, Tunisia 2020, Mexico City 2023 – In-cooperation with ACM SIGWEB). He was the Art Papers Chair for ACM SIGGRAPH 2019 and has chaired twice the Computer Art Congress (Mexico 2008 and Paris 2016), a scientific gathering of artists and technologists including paper sessions and artistic exhibition. In 2017, he published his authored book “The image-interface” at Wiley-ISTE, and he has also edited four collective books and translated to Spanish two books (Lev Manovich’s Software Takes Command (El software toma el mando) in 2014 and Edward Shanken’s Art and Electronic Media: A Survey (Inventar el futuro) in 2012).

Reyes teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on digital culture, data science and visualization, creative coding for the Web, and research methodology. He also advises students with their Masters and PhD dissertations, in the fields of information sciences, media studies, art, design, technology, digital humanities, and visual media.

Since 2016, Reyes has served as co-director of the Masters in Digital Humanities, a graduate program that includes four specialties. From 2019.09 to 2023.09, he served as Vice-president “Numérique” of Université Paris 8.

Prior to his current appointment, from 2011 to 2015, Reyes was Associate Professor at the Université Paris 13, where he served as co-director of the Masters in Interface Design. From 2007 to 2011, he was Assistant Professor and director of the B.A. program in Animation and Digital Art at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Toluca, Mexico, and member of the SNI (National System of Researchers) for the Mexican scientific council Conacyt.

Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ph.D. is an architect, design scholar, artist, TED Speaker, and Director of the Situated Computation + Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. She investigates critical questions of embodied practices and computation through craft, making, and heritage practices. Her research has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Mozilla Foundation, and ideas2innovation (i2i), among others. Dr. Noel is a recipient of the DigitalFUTURES Young Award for exceptional research and scholarship in the field of critical computational design. She is co-editor of the new book, “Critical Computational Relations in Design, Architecture and the Built Environment” with Dr. Yana Boeva.

Noel’s work is situated at the intersection of computation, ethnographic inquiry, and critical practice. Her scholarship combines methods and concepts from craft, human-computer interaction, media studies, and science and technology studies (STS). A scholar committed to fostering inclusive and minority perspectives on design, making, and technology, Noel conducts workshops and gives talks on design computation extensively across the globe.

Noel has held positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Florida, Penn State University, MIT, and the Singapore University of Technology & Design. She is also the founder, creator, and editor of Architecture Caribbean, an online platform that showcases and promotes design by Caribbean nationals. Noel has a TEDx Talk titled, “The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival.” Dr. Noel has been featured on Madame Architect and was a Keynote Speaker at ACADIA 2020.

Vernelle holds a Ph.D. in Architecture (Design Computing) from the Pennsylvania State University, a Masters of Science in Architecture Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Design Computation); a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University, and a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the John S. Donaldson Technical Institute (University of Trinidad & Tobago). Vernelle has practiced as an architect in the US, India, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Marina joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programs including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction.

Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 20 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she held until the site’s closure in 2023. Over the years, she has produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise; Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective; and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with over 300 episodes.

Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Visual Effects Society. She is the President of the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals.

Callie Holderman’s career focuses on content platforms, primarily spanning enterprise SaaS and augmented reality. She cares about making sophisticated technology accessible and simple, so customers (and internal teams) can spend more time being creative and collaborative. Her roles have spanned engineering and product leadership across companies like Snap, Twilio, and Magic Leap.

Callie’s academic career began with UNC Chapel Hill’s Computer Integrated Systems for Microscopy and Manipulation (CISMM) Research Group. Here, she developed visualizations that enabled scientists to both see and interact with the world on a nano scale. She later obtained a BS in a specialized CS program – Digital Arts and Sciences – from the University of Florida.

Nora Wixom (she/her) is a digital creative who seeks to create conscientious, enabling technology and further blur the lines between computation and artistry. Prior to her time in tech, she worked as a Character Technical Director at Industrial Light and Magic, where her credited feature films included “Kong: Skull Island”, “Jurassic World”, and “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”. She then leveraged her VFX industry skills to generate datasets that trained computer vision-based machine learning models for the Vision Pro, Apple’s inaugural augmented reality headset.

Nora is a passionate advocate for STEM education, dedicated to empowering learners of all ages and experience levels. She has volunteered with organizations like Girls Who Code and the California Academy of Sciences and has guest lectured at institutions such as Columbia and MIT. In addition to her commitment to education, she seeks to deepen her relationship to technology through her digital artistic practice, which centers themes of ownership, authenticity, power dynamics, and representation. Most recently, she has studied at the School for Poetic Computation and was invited to participate in the IAAT artist workshop hosted by Zero1.org in 2022.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Nora works as a software engineer at Apple, where she focuses on developing artist tools and applications for the Vision Pro.

Growing up in the digital age, Vib Soundrarajah’s passion for storytelling evolved in various mediums such as film, web, user experience design, and projection mapping experiences. His Bachelors of Global Business and Digital Arts at the University of Waterloo and his Master’s in Digital Media at Ryerson University has elevated his creative process to thinking critical while having imaginative ideas that contain insight and value.

Dr. Diana Arellano is currently Senior Lecturer for Technical Directing at the Animationsinstitut of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. She is responsible for shaping the curriculum, guiding and mentoring Technical Directing students in their exploration of new technological frontiers while gaining hands-on professional experience.

Previously, Diana served as Senior Manager for Software Development at Accenture Song Content in Stuttgart, Germany, where she led agile teams, bringing structure and best practices in agile project management to internal teams and client projects.

She holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Balearic Islands, Spain, specializing in Affective Computing. Beyond academia and industry, she is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion, having (co-)organized panel discussions on Women in CG and Visual Arts at renowned conferences such as SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, FMX, and Ars Electronica.

A longtime ACM SIGGRAPH volunteer since 2007 — beginning as Student Volunteer — Diana served as the SIGGRAPH 2022 Student Volunteer Program Chair and is currently the SIGGRAPH 2026 Executive Committee Liaison.

Nick Jushchyshyn teaches Virtual Production and performance capture at Drexel University with an interest in the interface between real and virtual worlds, leveraging virtual production, VR/AR, motion capture, and other immersive media solutions for use in education, cultural heritage, medicine, and narrative experiences. Some of what he’s learned gets shared openly on YouTube.

His feature film VFX work mainly involved Matchmoving (Syntheyes, PFTrack, MatchMover Pro, etc.), Compositing (Nuke, AE, Shake), Pipeline TD/Programming & Scripting (C, C++, Python), 3D (Maya, C4D), Photogrammetry, Motion Capture (Vicon, Optitrak, MotionBuilder), but these days most of what he does involves the Unreal Engine ecosystem.

Jesse Barker is an experienced Software Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry, particularly around graphics and display subsystems. Additionally, he has volunteered for ACM SIGGRAPH for a number of years and strives to build and strengthen the professional communities in which he participates.

He has presented talks on Vulkan, OpenGL ES, graphics and display technologies, and other software engineering topics at various developer conferences around the world (Game Developers Conference, Embedded Linux Conference, Linaro Connect, SIGGRAPH Birds of a Feather). And, he co-authored a chapter of “OpenGL Insights”.

He is a strong engineering professional skilled in System and Software Engineering, API Design, Embedded Software, Device Drivers, Computer Graphics, C/C++, STL.

Erik Brunvand is a Professor in the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he has taught and done research for over 30 years. His research and teaching interests include the design of application-specific computers, graphics processors, ray tracing hardware and software, asynchronous systems, and VLSI. Brunvand and his students are currently designing a many-core computer architecture targeted at real-time graphics rendering using ray tracing.

He also has a strong interest in arts/technology collaborations in both education and research. He co-developed and taught a collaborative course with colleagues in the Art department at the University of Utah entitled Embedded Systems and Kinetic Art. This course pairs computer science and art students into teams to design and build collaborative computer-controlled kinetic artworks. He has also developed and taught a course on sound-art as an intro to technology through the lens of using sound as a medium for making art. As an artist, Brunvand is a printmaker, co-founder of Saltgrass Printmakers (nonprofit printmaking studio in Salt Lake City), and he also works in mixed-media computer-controlled kinetic arts.

With over 15 years of Producing & Production Management experience in the entertainment industry at companies including Epic Games, Netflix Animation, Blizzard Entertainment, Pixar, LAIKA, and PDI/DreamWorks, Emily is fond of storytelling through all mediums and passionate about the power of animation, visual effects, games, and everything in between in bringing any story from any genre to life … as well as the occasional spreadsheet to help take a team to the finish line.

Emily started her SIGGRAPH journey through the Student Volunteer program and has served in multiple roles for the conference, including chairing some of its biggest programs: Production Sessions, Computer Animation Festival, and Real-Time Live!.

For over two decades, Verónica Orvalho has been a leader in facial technology research within computer graphics and vision, focusing on applications that enhance communication across media. She founded Didimo to create high-fidelity digital humans, revolutionizing how companies engage users in digital worlds. With a Ph.D. in Computer Graphics, Verónica is a professor at Porto University and a TEDx ambassador. She has contributed to SIGGRAPH as a published author, jury member, and reviewer. Verónica established a research lab at Porto University, published work in top conferences, and commercialized IP with Microsoft and Universal Studios. She has also worked at IBM and Ericsson. Verónica mentors future innovators as an EU EIC mentor and was named an EIC Ambassador in 2024. Her entrepreneurial achievements include being recognized as an EY Winning Woman in 2022 and shortlisted for the European Women Innovator award in 2021. She is also a passionate advocate for education and would love to see a world where every child has access to learning.

John is a technologist and strategist equally comfortable talking strategy with MBAs in the C-Suite or AI and blockchain with engineers and developers. Throughout his career, he has specialized in areas of healthcare, e-commerce, supply chain, retail, enterprise architecture, data science, and technology strategy.

In the healthcare industry, John has held the role of consultant, Chief Data Scientist, and Chief Data officer. His experience bridges the provider and payer side with a long-term focus on population health and the impact of Social Determinants of Health. As a data scientist, John is hands-on and has create numerous machine learning (AI) models to help organizations understand and predict risk, diagnostic anomalies, and outreach prioritization. His recent specialization focuses on using engagement, social determinants of health (SDOH), socio-economic, demographic, and geospatial information to drive personalization models used to help patients and providers gain awareness of the most effective benefits and programs via the Salesforce CRM platform.

In the retails and services industry, John led multiple large-scale cross-functional initiatives including supply chain transformation, e-commerce capabilities and scaling, and master data management. In the nonprofit space, John was selected as the Chief Architect for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s ambitious grant management enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Luke Tannenbaum is a Pipeline Engineer at Epic Games with a background in software, game cinematics, and theater. During his free time, he is an improviser, musician, and tabletop gamer. Starting as a SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer, Luke now has served on SIGGRAPH conference subcommittees for seven years between Real-Time Live! and the Immersive Pavilion. His experience in performance and media have led him to interests in virtual production and technical art, driving his passion for modern immersive content and the technology to support it.

Tuur Stuyck is a Research Scientist and Simulation Team Lead at Meta Reality Labs specializing in physics-based animations. He served on the SIGGRAPH 2019 and 2020 Immersive Pavilion committee. He also served as a committee member for High Performance Graphics 2021.

He is the author of the book Cloth Simulation for Computer Graphics.

He is working in the exciting field of graphics research and how it relates to virtual humans, avatars, and digital clothing and hair. Throughout his academic journey, he has had the privilege of interning at Adobe Research and Pixar Animation Studios’ research group on two occasions. After completing his PhD at KU Leuven University, he joined Pixar as a postdoc. He has made several computer animated short movies.

Valérie leads the animation and rigging R&D team at Netflix Animation Studios. After obtaining master’s degrees in mechanical and digital engineering from Arts et Métiers ParisTech, she started her career in the VFX and animation industry in her hometown of Paris before calling Vancouver home since 2011. She has worked at various studios including Image Engine and Sony Pictures Imageworks, before joining Animal Logic in 2018, now Netflix Animation Studios, and was conference co-chair for DigiPro in 2022 and 2023.

Mk had more than 25 years of experience at Walt Disney Imagineering in Themed Entertainment Design, Production, and R&D. She has also taught Computer Animation, Game Design, and Themed Entertainment Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Florida State University, UCLA, and now UT Austin. With over 30 years of service to industry associations, Mk is also a huge supporter of the ACM SIGGRAPH Conference planning process as well as the Themed Entertainment Association Conferences and Academic Society. Side quest: She is the Creative Consultant to the Worldwide Santa Claus Network.

Esen K. Tütüncü is a creative coder, transdisciplinary artist, and XR researcher. After producing two mini-documentaries during her studies at Lycée Français Notre Dame de Sion, she obtained her BA from Bahçeşehir University with a thesis titled “Obsol-escence: Research to Rewrite the Own Past,” which was accompanied by an interactive installation.

She is currently pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology and Virtual Reality at the Event Lab in Barcelona, with research focusing on the development of AI-based models for fostering social harmony in immersive virtual environments. She is also a member of the Institute of Neuroscience UB. Additionally, she lectures part-time at UPC CITM and SHIFTA by Elisava, teaching courses on Interactive Applications, Creative Coding, and Creating Immersive Narratives.

From 2018 to 2020, she participated in long-distance cycling expeditions across West Africa and Southeast Asia with TDA Global Cycling, documenting her journeys. Following the “Ayn-ı Galip” exhibition, she began producing works in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Her piece “Disintegrate” was exhibited at Sonar +D within the Virtual Museum Project (MEKAN.SPACE) during Sonar Istanbul 2020. Since moving to Barcelona, she has participated in the Immensive residencies and Nubia in 2022 and 2023, with her work exhibited at the Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture and the CCCB.

Bio coming soon!

Mirela Ben-Chen is a Professor at the Center for Graphics and Geometric Computing of the Computer Science Department, at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Ben-Chen is interested in computer graphics, geometry processing, discrete differential geometry, conformal geometry, and shape analysis and understanding.

Ben-Chen’s specialties include computer graphics, digital geometry processing, surface parameterization, image deformation, conformal geometry, discrete differential geometry, shape analysis, and understanding.

Adam Bargteil is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley and then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the City of Bridges working in the Graphics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. Before returning home to Maryland, he was an assistant professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah.

Creativity is Kristy Pron’s passion. She strives to challenge herself and her peers to think outside the box, to read between the lines, and to exhaust all design options to develop the best product or presentation they can. Her positions have always required her to devise a production quality solution in a short amount of time. She enjoys searching for new innovate ways to pitch an idea or entertain a viewer. She finds working with teams in a multidisciplinary field a great opportunity to learn from each other and discover new ways to solve problems that you may not have even considered. She will always seek out positions that allow her to constantly learn and add to her skills.