News

Do you have a vision for the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques? ACM SIGGRAPH is run by volunteers and the ACM SIGGRAPH Executive Committee sets the strategic direction for the future of the organization and provides oversight over our organization’s year-round activities. Each year, the membership has the opportunity to vote for three new members for the Executive Committee.

The Nominations Committee’s goal is to assemble a slate of candidates for these three roles. The process of assembling a slate of candidates happens over the course of 3-4 months with the aim of finding 2-3 candidates for each position on the slate. The Nominations Committee interviews all prospective candidates. The committee will also sometimes recruit candidates if they feel the need for more representation from a sector of our community.

The Nominations Committee is composed of 5-7 ACM SIGGRAPH members and is overseen by the Nominations Committee Chair, who is a non-voting member of the committee.  The committee interviews all prospective candidates. Once the interview period is complete, the Nominations Committee puts together a slate that is then sent to ACM.

In addition to individual qualifications, the committee takes into consideration the slate as a whole.  The process is designed to ensure that membership will have choices that represent different perspectives and communities and that qualified candidates can be identified for specific roles. 

This year, we are looking for candidates to run for two open Directors-at-Large positions. The committee is looking for candidates who:

• Are ACM SIGGRAPH members
• Have a strong perspective about the future of our organization
• Have a proven track record of successful volunteerism
• Are collaborative and collegial 
• Are representative of the communities that comprise our organization
• Are willing to serve a portion of their term as the ACM SIGGRAPH Chair (with the exception of the Treasurer)

This year we are also issuing a call for the Treasurer position. The Treasurer provides financial oversight to the organization. Like the Directors at Large positions, the Treasurer serves a 3 year term. The first year of the term is spent as Treasurer-elect, working closely with the current Treasurer to ensure a smooth transition to serving the following two years as the Treasurer. 

If you are interested in running for the Executive Commitee, would like to nominate someone, or have questions about the process, please reach out. The Nominations Committee Chair can be reached at ec-nominations@siggraph.org.  Nominations for the positions listed above must be made no later than 11:59PM EDT on February 1, 2025. Nominations must be accompanied by the nominee’s name and email address. 

Visit ACM SIGGRAPH’s Policy Guidelines to learn more about the nominations and election process.

Mashhuda Glencross has been named as the Volunteer Development Committee Chair.  Dr Glencross research interests are in computer graphics, human computer interaction and the application of these areas to real industry problems.  She is the director for teaching and learning in the school of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Queensland where she leads Graphics and Visualisation research with a focus on its application to safety in severe weather events. With a background in industry focused research,  her work in computer graphics has been supported through industry contracts and research council funding. Dr. Glencross’s work has had commercial impacts across computer games, visual effects, displays, mobile phones and image-based capture technologies.

As chair of the Volunteer Development Committee at ACM SIGGRAPH, she is excited to bring her previous experience in the organization to help develop our future leaders. ACM SIGGRAPH is a global organization that is underpinned by its strong volunteer base, without whom our year long activities and conferences would not be possible. Her vision is to develop mentorship schemes to move this community of volunteers to key contributors of technical, art, and interactive techniques, content to both our annual conferences. Dr. Mashhuda Glencross said, “I’m keen to work with the Professional and Student Chapters Committee and the Student Volunteers program to help develop strong volunteer development and mentorship programs that pair up key volunteers in our organization with academic and/or practitioner volunteers.”  Her objective is for our student volunteers, chapter volunteers and conference volunteers that take part in our conferences to become lifelong contributors to year long events, become our future content contributors and our future leaders. She said, “I’m seeking support from our community of experts internationally and from members of SIGGRAPH Academy to take part in these development programs to help make this happen.”

If you are interested in participating in the program, please contact Mashhuda at volunteer-development-chair@siggraph.org.

The Outstanding Service Award is presented annually to recognize a career of outstanding service to ACM SIGGRAPH by a volunteer. It recognizes an individual who has given extraordinary service to ACM SIGGRAPH, both in the trenches and in positions of more responsibility or visibility, over a significant period of time. The award includes a lifetime Pioneers membership in ACM SIGGRAPH.

For more information about the Award and the list of past winners, go to https://www.siggraph.org/awards/outstanding-service-award/.

If you are interested in submitting a candidate please contact the Chair of the Outstanding Service Award Committee, Scott Owen, at owen@siggraph.org. The deadline is January 31, 2025.

The ACM SIGGRAPH Officer Selection Advisory Group (OSAG) provided their recommendations to the Executive Committee and the following directors were elected to serve as Chair and Treasurer–elect for 2024-2025. Their term as Chair and Treasurer will commence 1 September 2025.

• EC Chair-Elect: Darin Grant
• Treasurer-Elect: David Spoelstra

Introducing the 2024 – 2023 ACM SIGGRAPH Officers

 ACM SIGGRAPH would like to thank Mona Kasra and David Spoelstra for serving as the Chair and Treasurer for 2023 – 2024. Their leadership and guidance was invaluable.

Chair – Eakta Jain, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of Florida. Dr. Jain is interested in the safety, privacy and security of data gathered for user modeling, particularly eye tracking data. She is advancing the EC Chair role in her third year on the EC.  We look forward to her leadership in the governance of ACM SIGGRAPH.

Chair – elect – Darin Grant was elected by the EC to serve as Chair-Elect in the upcoming year. Darin’s wealth of experience and expertise as CTO of Animal Logic makes him an excellent addition to the EC.  We look forward to the contributions Darin will make as his role on the EC and as Chair-Elect.

Treasurer – Brad Lawrence is the Imagery Engineering Lead at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He began his career in the Navy and went on to various Engineering duties for ITT and Texas Instruments before joining the Space Shuttle team in 1985. Brad was ACM SIGGRAPH Treasurer from 2018-2020 and was re-elected Treasurer in 2022, so he brings a wealth of experience to this position.  We welcome his continued leadership in this area.

Treasurer – elect – David Spoelstrahas served in executive and senior engineering management roles responsible for multi-million-dollar budgets at both startups and Fortune 500 companies for the last 20 years. David got his start at SIGGRAPH as an early employee of Truevision. David was Treasurer last year, and has been reappointed to Treasurer-Elect.

ACM SIGGRAPH is a volunteer-run organization that hosts a set of conferences and year-round activities for its members. More than a thousand volunteers help create vibrant conferences and an effective organization each year.