{"692151":{"#nid":"692151","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor Emeritus Named Distinguished Educator by ACM SIGGRAPH","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen Jim Foley attended his 50th ACM SIGGRAPH Conference in 2023, he expected it to be his last one.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESIGGRAPH, however, gave him another reason to return for its 2026 conference in Los Angeles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFoley accepted the organization\u2019s Distinguished Educator Award, presented annually since 2019.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI guess it wasn\u2019t my last one after all,\u201d Foley said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe award recognizes SIGGRAPH members who have made impactful contributions to computer graphics in educational environments. Foley has a strong pedigree in this area.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe co-authored the 1982 textbook \u003Cem\u003EFundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics\u003C\/em\u003E, which was renamed in its second edition as \u003Cem\u003EComputer Graphics: Principles and Practice\u003C\/em\u003E. With over 1,100 pages, it is widely regarded as the foundational text of modern computer graphics and animation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSome people called it \u2018the bible\u2019 of computer graphics, though I think there were some other good graphics textbooks,\u201d Foley said. \u201cWe covered many different aspects of computer graphics, from hardware to algorithms to software systems to user interface and design.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt stands out as an all-encompassing textbook, whereas current books are targeted at specific aspects of computer graphics rather than a broad introduction.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFoley co-authored the first edition with Andries Van Dam, a professor who co-founded Brown University\u2019s Department of Computer Science. Van Dam was the first to receive the Distinguished Educator Award in 2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI had people thanking me for the book while I was at the conference and telling me it was the first book they learned computer graphics from,\u201d Foley said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFoley came to Georgia Tech in 1991 and founded the Graphics, Visualization, \u0026amp; Usability (GVU) Center, which merged with Tech\u2019s Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) in 2023. GVU faculty helped establish Georgia Tech\u2019s prestigious reputation in computer graphics, and GVU students became highly sought after by video game and film animation studios, including Disney and Pixar.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFoley and other GVU faculty were also at the forefront of the emerging field of human-computer interaction (HCI).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFoley said he enjoyed teaching in the classroom as much as anything and preferred practical approaches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was always big on learning by doing, so I always had projects in my class that made students apply what I was talking about and not just regurgitate stuff on exams,\u201d he said. \u201cI think students enjoy having that hands-on experience.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, teaching was something he had to learn.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI wasn\u2019t good at it at first, but I think writing the book helped with that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you write a book, you discover how much you don\u2019t know about something because you\u2019re trying to carefully explain it so other people can understand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt makes you do more thinking, work through the explanations so that it makes sense to you and the reader.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech established the James D. Foley Endowment in 2007 to honor his achievements. Since then, annual fellowships in his name have been awarded to outstanding graduate students.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe 2026 Foley Scholar Awards will be announced in November.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJim Foley accepted the 2026 ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Educator Award, presented annually since 2019. The award recognizes SIGGRAPH members who have made impactful contributions to computer graphics in educational environments.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Jim Foley received the ACM SIGGRAPH 2026 Distinguished Educator Award"}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-09-01 13:47:50","changed_gmt":"2026-09-01 13:49:20","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681024":{"id":"681024","type":"image","title":"08C1214-P4-033-copy.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788270478","gmt_created":"2026-09-01 13:47:58","changed":"1788270478","gmt_changed":"2026-09-01 13:47:58","alt":"Jim Foley","file":{"fid":"265372","name":"08C1214-P4-033-copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/01\/08C1214-P4-033-copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/01\/08C1214-P4-033-copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":164066,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/01\/08C1214-P4-033-copy.jpg?itok=EBXVU7bq"}}},"media_ids":["681024"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"181886","name":"computer graphics"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}