Leading educator is new head of visualization
Dr. Wenping Wang, a leading computer graphics researcher, educator and academic administrator, is the new head of the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M. He succeeds Tim McLaughlin, who has overseen the department’s tremendous growth as its inaugural head since 2008.
“Wang has demonstrated outstanding leadership, management, administrative, and scholarship skills over a career that spans almost three decades,” said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture. “He is driven by the strong vision, passion, and long-term goal to elevate the department as a world-class platform for interdisciplinary collaboration among arts, science, and technology.”
Wang was chair professor since 2015 and served as head of the Department of Computer Science from 2012 to 2017 at the University of Hong Kong, where he has been a faculty member since 1993.
As a researcher, Wang has made fundamental research contributions in collision detection — a fundamental problem in a wide range of digital environments — as well as in shape modeling and analysis, mesh generation, and architectural geometry. He has published more than 160 journal papers in computer graphics and related topics in visual computing,
His many honors and recognitions include elevation to Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2017, an honor reserved for select institute members whose extraordinary accomplishments in IEEE fields of interest merit this prestigious elevation.
Also in 2017, for his fundamental contributions in geometric modeling. Wang earned the John A. Gregory Memorial Award, the most prestigious honor in the field of geometric design and computing. The awardee’s lifetime impact in the field is one of the chief selection criteria for this honor.
He also received the Outstanding Achievement Award in Computer Graphics, an honor presented only once every two years by the Computer Confederation of China. He is or has been associate editor of eight journals, and has chaired more than 20 international conferences in the field of visual computing,
Wang earned a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Alberta in 1992. He also earned a Master of Engineering in Computer Science in 1986 and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science University in 1983 at Shandong University.
“Wang will build upon the solid foundation of scholarship, creative work, and engagement developed in Department of Visualization for 12 years,” said Vanegas. “He will strengthen a unique department whose faculty and students meld art, science, and technology to enable a visual, technology-infused understanding of our world’s physical realities as well as the creation of virtual environments for a variety of applications in architecture and beyond.”
For more information, contact rnira@arch.tamu.edu or doswald@tamu.edu.
