Michael Mara

Michael Mara has a long history of working in computer graphics. Michael started at NVIDIA in 2012 as a Computer Graphics Researcher, where they primarily focused on real-time global illumination. Michael published papers in HPG and I3D on screen-space ambient obscurance, real-time photon density estimation, and other global illumination approximations, and gave talks at SIGGRAPH on cloud-assisted graphics. In 2014, they started working at Stanford University as a Computer Graphics Researcher, and at Casual Effects as a Lead Programmer. In 2016, they began working at Oculus VR as a Computer Graphics Research Contractor and Research Internship. Currently, they are a Founding Engineer at Luminary Cloud.

Michael Mara attended Suffield Academy from 2004 to 2008. Michael then went on to Williams College, where they earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Mathematics and Computer Science in 2012. Finally, they completed their Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Graphics from Stanford University in 2020.