David B. Kirk — NVIDIA Fellow

David Kirk is an NVIDIA Fellow and served from 1997 to 2009 as NVIDIA's chief scientist, a role in which he led the development of graphics technology for today’s most popular consumer entertainment platforms.

The California Institute of Technology (CIT) honored Kirk in 2009 with a Distinguished Alumni Award, its highest honor, for his work in the graphics-technology industry. He was elected in 2006 to the National Academy of Engineering for his role in bringing high-performance graphics to personal computers. He received in 2002 the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award for his role in bringing high-performance computer graphics systems to the mass market.

Prior to coming NVIDIA, Kirk served from 1993 to 1996 as chief scientist and head of technology for Crystal Dynamics, a video game manufacturing company. From 1989 to 1991, he was an engineer for the Apollo Systems Division of HP.

Kirk is the inventor of 50 patents and patent applications relating to graphics design and has published more than 50 articles on graphics technology. He holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MS and PhD degrees in computer science from CIT.