Edwin Catmull

Edwin "Ed" Catmull is a computer scientist and current chairman of the animation studios at Pixar and Disney. As a scientist, he has contributed to several important developments in computer graphics. Edwin Catmull was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Born in a Mormon family, Catmull was the eldest of five brothers and, as a young man, served as a missionary in the New York City area of ​the 1960s. Earlier in life, Catmull found inspiration in Disney films such as Peter Pan and Pinocchio and dreamed of becoming a full-length animator. He even made animations using flip-books. However, he evaluated his chances realistically and decided that his talents were elsewhere. Instead of pursuing a career in the film industry, he used his talent in mathematics and studied physics and computer science at the University of Utah. After graduating, he worked as a computer programmer at The Boeing Company in Seattle for a short time and also at the New York Institute of Technology before returning to Utah to go to graduate school in the fall of 1970.