The ACM SIGGRAPH Achievement Award, otherwise known as the "Computer Graphics Achievement Award", has been conferred on an internationally renowned scientist. George Drettakis, Director of Research at Inria and a French alumnus who completed his post-doctorate in Grenoble after a PhD in Canada, has been awarded this international distinction, which has attracted a great deal of attention within the ecosystem.

The Computer Graphics Achievement Award is given "to an individual for outstanding achievement in computer graphics and interactive techniques". It carries a cash prize of $2,000 and, according to Inria, the highlight of this year's award is that, for the first time, it goes to a researcher working at a European institute.

Awarded annually by SIGGRAPH of the Association for Computing Machinery, this prize highlights work that has had a lasting influence on computer graphics.

According to Inria, the French national institute for research in computer science and control, the award recognizes not only a scientific career, but also a way of working that is "both methodical and rooted in reality". The scientist has in fact "methodically followed his line of research. Step by step, inventing tools, correcting blind spots, finding the right compromise between rigor and practicality".

For SIGGRAPH, the competition organizer, the Achievement Award 2025 honors George Drettakis for his "pioneering work in shadow computation, sound rendering and image-based rendering, including 3D Gaussian splashing". More precisely still, explains Inria, his first visible results date back to the 2000s, during which time he notably devised "solid approaches: visibility skeletons, perspective shadow maps, Gabor noise". He also explores the role of perception (visual and auditory) in the user experience: he develops "neural rendering algorithms based on deep learning for interactive 3D navigation in real scenes captured by photos".

Originally from Greece, George Drettakis obtained a BSc from the University of Crete and an MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1994. He did postdoctoral work atErcim (European Consortium for Research in Computer Science and Mathematics) in Grenoble, Barcelona and Bonn.

Since 1995, he has been a researcher at Inria, initially in Grenoble, where he obtained his habilitation to direct research at the University of Grenoble. In 2000, he joined Inria Sophia-Antipolis, where he currently heads the GraphDeco research group.

For over 30 years, says the competition website, "he has played key roles in the computer graphics community". He has been "at the forefront of developments in image rendering, developed jointly with his students, post-docs and collaborators". In this way, he played "a key role in the evolution of computer graphics in Europe", mentoring more than forty doctoral and post-doctoral students who went on to have "a significant impact in industry and academia".

• The prize awarded to George Drettakis on the inria website
• The Computer graphics achievement award on the SIGGRAPH website