Theodore Kim, B.S., Cornell University, M.S., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Joined Yale Faculty 2019.

Theodore Kim's picture
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Address: 
AKW 412, 51 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511
theodore.kim@yale.edu
Website

Prof. Kim researches topics in physics-based simulation, including fire, water, and humans. His work has appeared in over two dozen movies, and received a 2012 SciTech Oscar. Many of the results can be seen on YouTube, and extensive source code is available on this page. Previously, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Pixar Research, where he received screen credits in Cars 3, Coco, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4. His first (uncredited) work appeared on-screen on the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

He received a BS in Computer Science in 2001 from Cornell and a PhD in Computer Science from UNC Chapel Hill in 2006 under the supervision of Ming Lin. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at IBM TJ Watson Research Center in 2007, and a Post-Doctoral Associate at Cornell University from 2008-2009 under the supervision of Doug James. From 2011-2015, He was a faculty member at UCSB in the Media Arts and Technology Program and the Department of Computer Science. While there, I received the UCSB Harold J. Plous Award (Junior Faculty of the Year). From 2009-2011, he was an Assistant Professor in CS at the University of Saskatchewan. He interned for Rhythm and Hues Studios in 2000 and 2001.
 

Representative Publications:

  • Analytic eigensystems for isotropic distortion energies. Breannan Smith, Fernando de Goes, and T. Kim. ACM Transactions on Graphics, February 2019.
  • Stable neo-hookean flesh simulation. Breannan Smith, Fernando de Goes, and T. Kim. ACM Transactions on Graphics, March 2018.
  • Quaternion julia set shape optimization. T. Kim. Symposium on Geometry Processing (SGP) 2015.
  • Wavelet turbulence for fluid simulation. T. Kim, Nils Thürey, Doug James, and Markus Gross. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH) 2008.
  • Optimizing cubature for efficient integration of subspace deformations. Steven An, T. Kim, and Doug James. ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH Asia) 2008.
  • Modeling ice dynamics as a thin film stefan problem. T. Kim, David Adalsteinsson, Ming Lin. Symposium on Computer Animation (SCA) 2006.