PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Larry S Davis

Also known as Larry Davis, Larry Steven Davis

Larry S Davis is a computer vision researcher whose work spans object and action recognition, surveillance, tracking, and human movement analysis. He earned degrees in mathematics and physics at Colgate and computer science at Maryland, began as an assistant professor at Texas at Austin, and returned to Maryland to build UMIACS. From 1999 to 2012, he chaired computer science at Maryland while his research covered image and video databases, 3-D motion capture, and camera networks. He became an IAPR Fellow in 2002, an ACM Fellow in 2012, and a Distinguished University Professor in 2016. After joining Amazon in 2018, he led generative image and video work and, by May 2026, was a Senior Principal Scientist in Fashion and Fitness; he is now a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Maryland.

Works
617
Citations
41,683
h-index
97

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Larry S Davis

Timeline

  1. 1970–1981

    Degrees and first appointments

    At Colgate, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics in 1970, then an M.S. in computer science in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1976 at Maryland. He began as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and returned to Maryland in 1981.

  2. 1985–1994

    Building a Maryland institute

    At Maryland, he founded the Institute of Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) in 1985 and served as its director until 1994.

  3. 1999–2012

    Chairing a computer vision department

    He chaired Maryland’s Department of Computer Science from 1999 to 2012. His research covered object and action recognition, scene analysis, image and video databases, tracking, human movement modeling, 3-D human motion capture, and camera networks. A 2001 paper titled Real Time Computer Surveillance for Crime Detection reports on real-time computer vision algorithms for visual surveillance systems.

  4. 2002–2012

    Fellowships in computer vision

    The IAPR named him a Fellow in 2002 for contributions to computer vision and image understanding. ACM elected him a Fellow in 2012 for contributions to image processing and computer vision.

  5. 2016

    A distinguished professorship

    The University of Maryland named him a Distinguished University Professor in 2016.

  6. 2018–May 2026

    Generative tools for fashion

    He joined Amazon in 2018 and, by May 2026, was a Senior Principal Scientist in its Fashion and Fitness organization. At Amazon, he worked on an outfit builder and virtual try-on, and led its first GenAI team for image and video synthesis, developing models to diversify the catalogue.

  7. As of October 2026

    An emeritus research home

    At UMIACS, he is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of computer science. His research spans object and action recognition, scene analysis, human movement modeling, 3-D motion capture, tracking, and camera networks.

Sources and credits

Photo: umiacs.umd.edu; Larry Davis | University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: umiacs.umd.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Distinguished University Professor Larry Davis Named Interim Chair of UMD Department of Computer Science cmns.umd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Larry Davis named Distinguished University Professor cs.umd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Real Time Computer Surveillance for Crime Detection | Office of Justice Programs ojp.gov. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Davis Elected As ACM Fellow | UMD Department of Computer Science cs.umd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. McCormick Events | Northwestern Engineering mccormick.northwestern.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Larry Davis | University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies umiacs.umd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.