Rate My Professor Shree Nayar

Shree K. Nayar is the T. C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, where he has held faculty positions since 1991. He began as an Assistant Professor from January 1991 to December 1994, advanced to Associate Professor from January 1995 to December 1996, became Professor from December 1996 to June 2002, and has served as T. C. Chang Professor since July 2002. He also acted as Department Chair from July 2009 to June 2012 and Acting Chair from July 2000 to December 2000. Prior to Columbia, Nayar was a Research Assistant at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, from July 1986 to December 1990, where he earned his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Earlier roles include Visiting Research Scientist at Hitachi, Ltd. in Yokohama, Japan, during the summer of 1989, and Research Engineer at Taylor Instruments Ltd. in New Delhi, India, from July to November 1984. Nayar heads the Columbia Vision Laboratory (CAVE), which develops computational imaging and computer vision systems.

Nayar's research centers on the creation of novel cameras that provide new forms of visual information, the design of physics-based models for vision and graphics, and the development of algorithms for understanding scenes from images. These efforts support applications in imaging, computer vision, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality, visual communication, computer graphics, and human-computer interfaces. He has received numerous awards, including the David Marr Prize in 1990 and 1995, David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in 1992, National Young Investigator Award in 1993, NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 1994, Keck Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1995, Columbia Great Teacher Award in 2006, Carnegie Mellon Alumni Achievement Award in 2009, Sony Appreciation Honor in 2014, Columbia Engineering Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2015, IEEE PAMI Distinguished Researcher Award in 2019, Funai Achievement Award in 2021, and Okawa Prize in 2023. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008, American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, National Academy of Inventors in 2014, and Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2022. Key publications include 'Columbia Object Image Library (COIL-100)' (1996), 'Visual Learning and Recognition of 3-D Objects from Appearance' (1995), 'Vision and the Atmosphere' (2002), 'Contrast Restoration of Weather Degraded Images' (2003), and 'Reflectance and Texture of Real-World Surfaces' (1999). Nayar presents the 'First Principles of Computer Vision' lecture series.