Charles Csuri

Charles Csuri (born July 4, 1922), aka Chuck Csuri, is a pioneer in the field of computer art and a former All American college football player.

Digital art
Charles Csuri is best known for pioneering the field of computer graphics, computer animation and digital fine art, creating his first computer art in 1964. Csuri has been recognized as the father of digital art and computer animation by Smithsonian, and as a leading pioneer of computer animation by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and  The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group Graphics (ACM SIGGRAPH). Between 1971 and 1987, while a senior professor at the Ohio State University, Charles Csuri founded the Computer Graphics Research Group, the Ohio Super Computer Graphics Project, and the Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design, dedicated to the development of digital art and computer animation. Csuri was co-founder of Cranston/Csuri Productions (CCP), one of the world's first computer animation production companies. In 2000 Charles Csuri received both the 2000 Governor's Award for the Arts for the best individual artist, and  The Ohio State University Sullivant Award, that institution's highest honor, in acknowledgment of his lifetime achievements in the fields of digital art and computer animation. His current exhibition "Beyond Boundaries" is a retrospective of seventy of his most groundbreaking works of computer art. The exhibition is scheduled to travel to museums in Europe and Asia. He is the founder of Ohio State's celebrated research center, The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD).

Football
Csuri is in the Football Hall of Fame as M.V.P. in the Big Ten Conference and captain of the Ohio State University's first national championship football team in 1942. He was a 16th round selection (154th overall pick) in the 1944 NFL Draft by the Chicago Cardinals.

Veteran
Csuri is a World War II veteran and served his country from 1943-1946. In 1945 Csuri received the Bronze Star for heroism in the Battle of the Bulge.

Academia
After WWII, Csuri returned to Ohio State to complete his M.A. in art in 1948. In 1949 he joined the faculty of the Department of Art The Ohio State University. In 1978 he became a Professor of Art Education and in 1986 a Professor of Computer Information Science. He is still a professor Emeritus at The Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design The Ohio State University.