Halfway through an interview
for a faculty position in applied
mathematics at Brown in 1965,
Andy van Dam was surprised
when the department chair
excused himself to teach a freshman
class. "I thought, 'They really
mean it; they really are committed
to teaching undergraduates,'" he
says. "So I took the job and have
loved it ever since."
Now the Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
University Professor of Technology
and Education as well as Professor
of Computer Science and Vice
President for Research, van Dam
is an internationally revered pioneer
in computer graphics. He is
also mentor to a long line of students
who have become leading
academics and luminaries in the
computer industry. He is shown
here with three of his protégés-
David Laidlaw '84, now associate
professor of computer science
at Brown, and undergraduates
Xiao Yun (Alice) Liu '07 and Neil
Mehta '06.
Throughout his four decades at
Brown, Andy van Dam has never
lost his love of teaching. "I view
the entire teaching and research
enterprise as hard fun," he says.
"You work like crazy, but can't
take yourself too seriously."
An early proponent and practitioner
of involving undergraduates
in research, van Dam says,
"One of the beautiful things about
Brown is that we don't make
much of a distinction between
undergraduates and graduate
students. It's all about research
as a team sport."