COLUMBUS - Charles A. Csuri, Ohio State University professor emeritus of art education and computer and information science, has been named the recipient of the Joseph Sullivant Medal, one of the university's highest honors.

Ohio State's Board of Trustees approved the award on Friday (7/7). Established in 1920 by Ohio State professor of physics Thomas C. Mendenhall, the Sullivant Medal is a memorial to Sullivant, an influential member of the university's first Board of Trustees. The $10,000 prize is awarded at five-year intervals to recognize notable achievements by alumni or faculty members.

Csuri of CLINTONVILLE, who received both his B.F.A. and M.A. degrees from Ohio State, is internationally acclaimed as the father of computer art. A faculty member in the university's Department of Art since 1953, he was an established painter and sculptor when he began to create art on the computer in 1964. His pioneering efforts showed that technology could be used as a medium for artistic expression.

"Chuck Csuri is one of Ohio State's shining lights," said university President William E. Kirwan. "His visionary work at Ohio State revolutionized the art of animation and scientific visualization, and he continues to explore the links between technology and aesthetics."

Csuri played the leading role in establishing the cross-disciplinary Computer Graphics Research Group, now the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design (ACCAD) in the Ohio State College of the Arts, as well as Cranston/Csuri Productions, one of the first and most influential computer-generated special effects production facilities in the world. Today 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.

"The Ohio State University has been my life for sixty years," said Csuri. "There are so many teachers and students who helped me to grow intellectually and as a human being. I feel very honored to receive the Joseph Sullivant Medal."

Csuri's work appears in numerous museum and corporate collections, including New York's Museum of Modern Art. A retrospective of his work, Charles A. Csuri: In Search of Meaning, 1948-2000, was exhibited earlier this year at the Canzani Center Gallery of the Columbus College of Art and Design. A simultaneous exhibition, Virtual Glass, was presented at the Riley Hawk Gallery in Columbus. Among his many honors is the state of Ohio's 2000 Governor's Award for the Arts, the state's highest recognition for an individual artist, which he received in March.

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