PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Michael Gleicher

Also known as Michael L Gleicher

Michael Gleicher is a researcher whose work links motion synthesis, robotics and visualization. He earned an electrical engineering degree at Duke and computer science degrees at Carnegie Mellon, then researched computer animation, computer vision and user interfaces at Apple and video tracking at Autodesk before joining UW–Madison in 1998. His 2002 Motion Graphs method connected motion-capture data into a graph for constrained movement, and his January 2025 paper used text and visual data to help a large language model answer questions about scientific visualizations. He became a professor at UW–Madison in 2009, joined the IEEE Visualization Academy in 2025, and was named to ACM’s 2025 Fellow class in January 2026 for contributions to graphics, multimedia, visualization and robotics. As of October 2026, he is the David DeWitt Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Computer Sciences at UW–Madison.

Works
341
Citations
15,580
h-index
63
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1988–1994

    Degrees at Duke and Carnegie Mellon

    He earns a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Duke in 1988. At Carnegie Mellon, he studies computer science from 1988 to 1994, earns MS and PhD degrees, and completes a thesis supervised by Andrew Witkin.

  2. 1994–1998

    Research at Apple and Autodesk

    From 1994 to 1997, he works in Apple Computer’s graphics group on computer animation, computer vision and user interfaces. From 1997 to 1998, he researches video tracking, motion capture and editing at Autodesk’s Vision Technology Center, then joins UW–Madison’s Computer Science Department in 1998.

  3. 2002

    Motion Graphs for animation

    In 2002, he coauthors Motion Graphs, a method that builds seamless transitions from motion-capture data into a directed graph so users can extract motions that meet constraints.

  4. 2009

    Promotion to professor

    In 2009, he becomes a Professor in UW–Madison’s Department of Computer Sciences.

  5. January 2025

    Augmenting an LLM for visualization

    In January 2025, he coauthors a method that combines text and visual data to help a large language model answer questions about scientific data visualizations.

  6. 2025

    Joining the Visualization Academy

    In 2025, he joins the IEEE VGTC Visualization Academy.

  7. 2025

    An ACM fellowship

    In January 2026, ACM names him a Fellow in its 2025 class for contributions to graphics, multimedia, visualization and robotics.

  8. As of October 2026

    David DeWitt professor

    He is the David DeWitt Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs in the UW–Madison Department of Computer Sciences, and his current research focuses on robotics and data visualization.

Career

  1. Since 1998University of Wisconsin–MadisonDavid DeWitt Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs
  2. 1997–1998AutodeskResearcher
  3. 1994–1997AppleResearcher

Education

  1. 1994Carnegie Mellon UniversityMS and PhD in Computer Science
  2. 1988Duke UniversityB.S.E. in Electrical Engineering

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

Most-cited works

  1. Motion graphs2008 · 1,052 citations
  2. Retargetting motion to new characters1998 · ACM SIGGRAPH Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) · 855 citations
  3. Visual comparison for information visualization2011 · Information Visualization · 567 citations
  4. Automated extraction and parameterization of motions in large data sets2004 · ACM Transactions on Graphics · 483 citations
  5. Content-preserving warps for 3D video stabilization2009 · ACM Transactions on Graphics · 468 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Wisconsin–Madison. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Wisconsin–Madison. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. About Michael Gleicher (Bio) gleicher.sites.cs.wisc.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Introduction to the Annual Report of the UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department pages.cs.wisc.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Motion Graphs gleicher.sites.cs.wisc.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Augmenting a Large Language Model with a Combination of Text and Visual Data for Conversational Visualization of Global Geospatial Data graphics.cs.wisc.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. The IEEE VGTC Visualization Academy tc.computer.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Excellence and Impact Recognized by World's Preeminent Computing Society prnewswire.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Michael Gleicher's Web Page gleicher.sites.cs.wisc.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.