COLUMBUS --Ohio State University's pioneer in computer animation has received the state of Ohio's highest recognition for an individual artist.

Gov. Bob Taft Wednesday presented Charles Csuri, professor emeritus of art at Ohio State, with the 2000 Governor's Award for the Arts for the best individual artist.

Known worldwide as the father of computer art, Csuri also is a pioneer in animation and scientific visualization; the founder of the interdisciplinary studio model for technology and visual art; and a proponent and creator of aesthetic excellence. His contributions to excellence, artistic growth and dissemination of new art forms have deep roots that begin within the fine arts tradition and extend to the movie and animation industry.

Csuri, of Clintonville, received both his B.F.A and M.A. degrees from Ohio State. He became a faculty member in the Department of Art in 1953 and was an established painter and sculptor when he began to create art on the computer in 1964 - long before technology was recognized as a medium for artistic expression.

Csuri worked collaboratively with computer scientists, engineers, artists and educators, and found support for his work from sources such as the Navy and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He was the first artist to be funded by the National Science Foundation, in 1969, and continued to receive funding over the next 20 years.

His effective leadership and extensive artistic experience enabled him and his cross-disciplinary team to establish the Computer Graphics Research Group, now the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design (ACCAD) in the Ohio State College of the Arts; and Cranston/Csuri Productions, one of the first and most influential computer-generated special effects production facilities in the world. ACCAD works with a wide variety of institutions and corporations, and educates many students in special effects and animation for the film and entertainment industry.

Recognition of Csuri's pioneering work began in 1967 with the prize for animation at the 4th International Experimental Film Festival in Brussels, Belgium. His work is owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and many other museums, corporations and individuals. His ground-breaking accomplishments are included in The History of Computer Graphics, a film that premiered at the 1999 international SIGGRAPH conference.

A professor emeritus of art education and computer and information science, Csuri, 76, continues to make art and to push the boundaries of emerging technologies.

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