Professor Michael Zyda: a biography

Abstract

Michael Zyda is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. Professor Zyda is also the Academic Associate and Chair of the NPS Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation curriculum. He has been at NPS since February of 1984. Professor Zyda's main focus in research is in the area of computer graphics, specifically the development of large-scale, networked 3D virtual environments. Professor Zyda was a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Virtual Reality Research and Development. Professor Zyda is the chair of the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board Committee on Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment & Defense. Professor Zyda is also the Senior Editor for Virtual Environments for the MIT Press quarterly PRESENCE, the journal of teleoperation and virtual environments. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Computers & Graphics. Professor Zyda is also a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics, Providence, Rhode Island. Professor Zyda has been active with the Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and was the chair of the 1990 conference, held at Snowbird, Utah and the chair of the 1995 Symposium, held in Monterey, California. Professor Zyda began his career in Computer Graphics in 1973 as part of an undergraduate research group, the Senses Bureau, at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Zyda received a BA in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla in 1976, an MS in Computer Science/Neurocybernetics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1978 and a DSc in Computer Science from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1984.