Gord Kurtenbach

Biography

Dr. Gordon Kurtenbach is the Director of Research at Autodesk where he oversees a group whose focus is research on 3D interactive graphics in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Graphics.

Prior to Autodesk, Gordon was the head the interactive graphics research group at Alias which researched advanced technologies for products such as Maya, AliasStudio, SketchBook and PortfolioWall. Prior to Alias, Gordon was a researcher at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center working on pen based user interfaces for wall-sized display systems. Before Xerox, Gordon was a member of Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group researching gesture-based input techniques for graphical user interfaces.

Gordon received a B.Sc. from University of Saskatchewan in 1984, a M.Sc. from University of of Toronto in 1988, and a Ph.D. from University of Toronto in 1993 in Computer Science.

Gordon's Ph.D. work on "marking menus" is a patented feature used broadly in Autodesk products. His research interests in the field of human-computer interaction include input devices, bi-manual input, high degree of freedom input, menuing systems, UI for 3d graphics, human motor control and perception. Gordon has many research publications and over thirty granted patents.