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Posted on Fri, Feb 19, 2010 : 12:01 p.m.

Ann Arbor native will receive a technology Oscar

By Jenn McKee

WERNER.jpg
Ann Arbor native Bill Werner — a Pioneer High School and University of Michigan grad — will receive a 2010 Technical Academy Award on Saturday, February 20.

According to Werner, "The award is based on my work at Texas Instruments in developing the core technology being widely used in Digital Cinema Projector applications in many theaters worldwide today. This digital projection technology (a/k/a DLP Cinema) is also the fundamental enabling technology for the recent explosion in the popularity of digital 3D movie presentations such as 'Avatar.'"

Receiving this award with Werner are Brad Walker, D. Scott Dewald, and Greg Pettitt.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected 15 scientific and technical achievements, representing 46 individual award recipients, who will be honored at the annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Unlike other Academy Awards, achievements earning Sci-Tech Awards needn't have been developed or introduced in 2009, but rather must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.

Comments

Dug Song

Fri, Feb 19, 2010 : 12:31 p.m.

There's also Jonathan Cohen, who's actually in Ann Arbor, and won a 2008 technical Academy Award for his fluid dynamics effects on Spider-Man 3 and The Golden Compass - he's 4th from the top on the left: http://www.oscars.org/awards/scitech/winners/images/hero_2007winners.jpg He was previously at Sony Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues, and is now working remote for the new NVIDIA Research. He says Jessica Alba is really small.