Anyone awed by the special effects in the films Jurassic Park, Terminator 2 and The Abyssshould thank Hannah. The computer scientist is one of the founders, in 1982, of the software firm Silicon Graphics (now SGI), where the special-effects genius developed 3-D graphics technology that would be used in many Hollywood movies. Donkey Kong fans also owe a debt of gratitude to Hannah: He was instrumental in designing the Nintendo 64 gaming system.
Marc Regis Hannah is a co-founder of SGI (Silicon Graphics) and partly responsible for the direction computer graphics have taken since the company was founded in 1982 in Mountain View, Calif. SGI’s high-powered workstations are responsible for flashy computerized films, such as “Mars Attacks!” and “Jurassic Park,” and Hannah’s 16 years there earned him credit as a special effects whiz. Although the entertainment industry is high profile for SGI, it still makes up only about 15% of the company. Hannah’s designs have also helped build the Boeing 777 and modeling systems for biotechnology applications.
SGI was the brainchild of Jim Clark, one of Hannah’s instructors at Stanford where he earned his doctorate in 1985. Working on his degree in electrical engineering, Hannah started working with Clark on creating an improved machine to manipulate 3D images. The Geometry Engine, which Clark officially invented, was the computer chip that made the manipulation possible. Using a chip, a computer user could rotate an image on-screen in three dimensions, as opposed to the previous flat, 2D computer images. Clark and Hannah took the chip, along with five other founders, and founded SGI.
Hannah’s work at SGI was first to rework and improve the Geometry Engine. Under his guidance the chip would be the mainstay of the company for the next six years, attracting ever-bigger clients and a burgeoning revenue. Hannah, who was vice president and chief scientist at the time, left the company in 1997.
His stint at Stanford University came after a litany of awards. From his high school in Chicago, Hannah entered the Illinois Institute of Technology on a Bell Laboratories scholarship. After graduating in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Bell Labs gave Hannah another award that piloted him to Stanford. While at Stanford, Hannah earned a master’s degree in 1978 and eventually his doctorate, both in electrical engineering.
Born in Chicago on Oct. 13, 1956, Hannah was encouraged to succeed from the very beginning. His parents, Hubert and Edith, raised him and his four siblings under the banner of education. Hubert, an accountant, and especially Edith, a teacher, encouraged their children to excel in school, which Hannah did admirably.
Even after his success with SGI, Hannah has turned his talents to other projects. He has worked as a consultant for SGI and a few startup companies, including Omniverse Digital Solutions and Pulsent. On the nontechnical side, he has been a partial owner of Rondeau Bay construction company, which repairs sewer pipelines. Hannah is also the recipient of 13 patents and numerous awards and honors, including the Professional Achievement Award from both Illinois Institute of Technology and the National Technical Association.
(From this page)
Read more here: http://historicblackmoments.blogspot.com/2012/07/3d-movie-experience-was-developed-by.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Graphics
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