Rate My Professor James O'Brien

James F. O'Brien is a Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000, where his doctoral thesis received the College of Computing's Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. Prior to that, he obtained his M.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech in 1997 and his B.S. in Computer Science from Florida International University in 1992. O'Brien's research interests encompass computer graphics, computer animation, simulations of physical systems, human perception, rendering, image synthesis, machine learning, virtual reality, digital privacy, and the forensic analysis of images and video. His work includes advancements in fluid dynamics, physically based animation, finite element simulation, motion capture, facial animation, geometric algorithms, and geometric design and modeling. He has collaborated extensively with film and game companies to integrate advanced simulation physics into special effects and games, with his destruction modeling techniques applied in over 200 feature films and game titles. Previously, he served as Chief Scientist at Pixelux and Avametric, and currently acts as a technical advisor to Juice Labs, the Augur Energy AI Fund, and Cosine Energy. From 2010 to 2016, he was Director at Large for ACM SIGGRAPH.

O'Brien has received prestigious awards recognizing his contributions, including the Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2015 for destruction modeling, a Technical Achievement award from DreamWorks Animation in 2020, the Sloan Research Fellowship in 2003, the Hellman Fellowship in 2004, the ACM Distinguished Scientist Award in 2009, and the Jim and Donna Gray Endowment Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2008. He was selected as one of MIT Technology Review's TR-35 top innovators under 35 in 2004 and honored as FIU College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni and with Georgia Tech's 15-Year Impact Award. Key publications include the book 'Computational Studies of Human Motion: Part 1, Tracking and Motion Synthesis' (2006, co-authored with D.A. Forsyth et al.), 'Animating Human Athletics' (1995, with J.K. Hodgins et al.), 'Graphical Modeling and Animation of Brittle Fracture' (1999, with J.K. Hodgins), and 'Fast and Deep Facial Deformations' (2020, with S.W. Bailey et al.). His research has significantly influenced computer graphics and animation fields through highly cited works and practical applications in industry.