Marc Regis Hannah earned a scholarship from AT&T's Bell Laboratories to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, then went on to Stanford University, where he met professor Jim Clark, whose interest in 3-D graphics matched his own.
In 1982, Hannah co-founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) with Clark and five others. As principal scientist, he was chief architect of SGI's Personal IRIS, Indigo and Indy graphics systems, and co-invented the Z-buffering technique now standard in 3D computer graphics.
SGI's technology, shaped by Hannah's engineering, powered the visual effects for films including Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, earning him an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1995.
- Co-founder and principal scientist, Silicon Graphics, Inc.
- Co-inventor of the Z-buffering technique used throughout 3D computer graphics
- Academy Award for Technical Achievement, 1995
- SGI technology powered visual effects in Jurassic Park, Terminator 2 and more
- Find the professor whose obsession matches yours, and build something together.. His partnership with Jim Clark at Stanford led directly to founding SGI.
- Lower the price of the technology and you expand who gets to use it.. His work brought 3D graphics costs down from $800,000 to under $10,000.
- Design the tools; let others make the art.. He built the graphics hardware that studios' own artists then used to create iconic films.