New York, NY, June 20, 2006 - ACM SIGGRAPH will award its 2006 Significant New Researcher Award to Takeo Igarashi for his creative contributions to interactive techniques for computer graphics. Best known for "Teddy", his ground-breaking work on easy-to-use, sketch-based interfaces for 3D shape modeling, Igarashi has directed much of his research on making the creation of complex computer graphics accessible to novice users interactively. Igarashi, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, was cited for his sense of fluidity in interaction design. The SIGGRAPH Significant New Research Award is given annually to a researcher who has made a recent significant contribution to the field of computer graphics and is new to the field. Igarashi will receive his award at SIGGRAPH 2006, July 30-August 3, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, MA.

Igarashi's "Teddy" lives on. It is used in a variety of commercial products, including PC applications and home video games. His SIGGRAPH 1999 paper on Teddy is frequently cited as one of the fundamental resources for sketch-based interfaces.

An associate professor in computer science at the University of Tokyo, Igarashi was a post-doctoral research associate at Brown University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in March 2000. His research interests include user interface as well as interaction techniques for 3D graphics.

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

About ACM SIGGRAPH
The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (www.siggraph.org) is an interdisciplinary community interested in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Members include researchers, developers and users from the technical, academic, business, and art communities. SIGGRAPH provides information to the computer graphics community through its annual conference, publications and the SIGGRAPH Video Review.