Professor Kai Hormann receives the prestigious John A. Gregory Award

Professor Kai Hormann, Full Professor at the Faculty of Informatics of Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), received the prestigious John A. Gregory Award for his fundamental contributions to the field of geometric modelling.

The John A. Gregory Award is currently the highest award in the field of geometric design. Announced once every three years, this award recognises individuals for their fundamental lifetime contributions to the field of geometric modelling. Previous recipients include such illustrious personalities such as Pierre Bézier, famous for his discovery of Bézier curves, and Carl de Boor, known for his contributions to the development of B-splines. The award was presented to Prof. Hormann at the Dagstuhl Seminar on Geometric Modelling, held from 9 to 14 June at the Leibniz-Zentrum for Informatics in Wadern, Germany.

According to the laudatio delivered by Prof. Bert Jüttler of the Johannes Kepler Universität Linz during the award ceremony, "Professor Kai Hormann has made outstanding and significant contributions to the field of informatics, particularly in the areas of barycentric coordinates, triangle mesh parameterisation and subdivision surfaces. His expertise also extends to computational geometry, with his most influential publications focusing on polygon clipping and the point-in-polygon test." Geometric modelling is a research field that involves mathematical methods to accurately define the geometry of three-dimensional objects, which can then be manipulated, analysed, and visualised. Professor Hormann's work in geometric modelling has found applications in the fields of computer graphics, industrial design, and even archaeology.

Pioneering contributions in the fields of geometric modelling, numerical analysis and computer graphics

The John A. Gregory Award represents the most recent achievement in Prof. Hormann's career, which has been marked by significant accolades in various crucial fields leading to this prestigious award. One of Prof. Hormann's major contributions to the field of geometric modelling is his work on generalised barycentric coordinates (GBC), which extend the traditional concept of barycentric coordinates to arbitrary polygons and polyhedra. His approach simplifies and improves the construction of GBCs as well as their computational efficiency.

Professor Hormann also introduced a new family of barycentric rational interpolants, which avoid the problem of poles inherent to traditional rational interpolation methods. His interpolants are stable, especially for equidistant nodes, where polynomial interpolation often fails. The professor's contribution to the field of subdivision methods for curves and surfaces is also particularly relevant. Kai Hormann developed non-linear geometric subdivision schemes, guaranteeing G1 continuity and improving geometric properties.

The receipt of the John A. Gregory Award by Professor Kai Hormann, a prize highly sought-after by the world's leading experts in the field, once again underlines the high standard of quality and excellence offered by Università della Svizzera italiana.