Markus Gross

Markus Gross is Vice President for Global Research and Development and the director of Disney Research.

He is a Professor of Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH), where he is also the head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory. He joined the ETH Computer Science faculty in 1994. Gross's research interests include physically based modeling, computer animation, immersive displays, and video technology.

Before joining Disney, Gross was director of the Institute of Computational Sciences at ETH. He received a master of science in electrical and computer engineering and a Ph.D. in computer graphics and image analysis, both from Saarland University in Germany in 1986 and 1989.

Gross serves on the boards of numerous international research institutes, societies, and governmental organizations. He received the Technical Achievement Award from EUROGRAPHICS in 2010 and the Swiss ICT Champions Award in 2011.

He is a fellow of the ACM and of the EUROGRAPHICS Association and a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina as well as the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

In 2013, he received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Konrad Zuse Medal of GI and the Karl Heinz Beckurts price.

He cofounded Cyfex AG, Novodex AG, LiberoVision AG, Dybuster AG, Gimalon AG, Kapanu AG, Perceptiko AG and Propulsion Academy AG.