PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Aaron Hertzmann

Aaron Hertzmann is a researcher whose work connects machine learning with computer graphics. He earned a BA in computer science and art at Rice University and a PhD in computer science at New York University. His early methods rendered photographs in painterly styles and learned artistic styles from examples. His career included an acting assistant professorship at Washington, a professorship at Toronto, and a visiting research role at Pixar; ACM SIGGRAPH gave him its Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 2024. He is a principal scientist at Adobe Research and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington.

Works
260
Citations
21,961
h-index
67
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1996–2001

    Degrees at Rice and NYU

    He earns a BA in computer science and art & art history from Rice University in 1996, then completes a PhD in computer science at New York University in 2001.

  2. 1998

    Painterly rendering by algorithm

    In a 1998 SIGGRAPH paper, he presents a method that turns photographs into hand-painted images with layered spline brush strokes.

  3. 2001

    Learning image styles by example

    In 2001, he publishes Image Analogies at SIGGRAPH and proposes learning artistic styles from examples, including transfer of watercolor style to a photograph.

  4. 2001–2002

    Acting assistant professor at Washington

    He serves as an Acting Assistant Professor in the University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering Department from fall 2001 to December 2002.

  5. 2003–2013

    Professor at Toronto

    He joins the University of Toronto’s Computer Science Department as an assistant professor in January 2003, becomes associate professor in July 2007, and full professor in July 2012.

  6. June 2009–February 2010

    Visiting researcher at Pixar

    He serves as a visiting research scientist at Pixar Animation Studios from June 2009 to February 2010.

  7. 2024

    A SIGGRAPH achievement award

    He receives the Computer Graphics Achievement Award from ACM SIGGRAPH for work in computer graphics, character design, fluid motion modeling, and human motion.

  8. Since 2016

    Principal scientist at Adobe

    He becomes a Principal Scientist at Adobe Research in September 2016 and is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington. In April 2025, he gives the University of Toronto’s C.C. “Kelly” Gotlieb Distinguished Lecture on the intersection of art and computer science. In 2026, he presents “How we draw pictures” at SIGGRAPH’s Lines & Minds workshop.

A language model matched the links in this timeline to people, organizations and papers (provisional, model-judged).

Career

  1. Since 2016AdobePrincipal Scientist
  2. Since 2001University of WashingtonActing Assistant Professor
  3. 2009–2010Pixar Animation StudiosVisiting Research Scientist
  4. 2003–2013University of TorontoAssistant Professor, Associate Professor

Education

  1. 2001New York UniversityPhD
  2. 1996Rice UniversityBA

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Removing camera shake from a single photograph2006 · ACM Transactions on Graphics · 1,840 citationsWith Rob Fergus and William T. Freeman
  2. Image analogies2001 · ACM SIGGRAPH Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) · 1,581 citationsWith Nuria Oliver
  3. Gaussian Process Dynamical Models for Human Motion2007 · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 1,023 citationsWith David J. Fleet
  4. Art and the science of generative AI2023 · Science · 776 citationsWith Alex Pentland and Olga Russakovsky
  5. Recovering non-rigid 3D shape from image streams2002 · IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · 754 citationsWith Christoph Bregler

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 113 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Washington. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 113 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  2. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Washington. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 33%Includes University of Washington. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 33% in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Aaron Hertzmann yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Adobe Research » Aaron Hertzmann research.adobe.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Painterly Rendering with Curved Brush Strokes of Multiple Sizes mrl.cs.nyu.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. My Journey in Art and Computing, So Far (SIGGRAPH Award Talk) | Aaron Hertzmann’s blog aaronhertzmann.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Aaron Hertzmann: Curriculum Vitae dgp.utoronto.ca. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. Rice CS alum Aaron Hertzmann wins SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award | Computer Science | Rice University csweb.rice.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Aaron Hertzmann: Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series | University of Toronto Alumni alumni.utoronto.ca. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Aaron Hertzmann dgp.utoronto.ca. Checked 18 October 2026.