The success of Khronos is dependent on the dedication and active contributions of its members. The Khronie Awards are presented to individuals who have made significant contributions in advancing the work of Khronos Working Groups towards their goals. The Khronies are normally presented at Face-to-Face meetings, but in the absence of physical gatherings for most of this year, Khronos is delighted to recognize here online the following members for their incredible hard work.
Philip Salzmann Universität Innsbruck
Online - March 2023
Philip Salzmann joined SYCL WG three years ago from University of Innsbruck, and in a short time, became super-active in helping SYCL by rebuilding our CTS structure as well as many more issue resolutions. I personally felt he was one of the key contributors to delivering SYCL 2020 with his work in revamping the CTS framework, from a handwritten one for SYCL 1.2.1 to one that is based on a well-known test framework in Catch-2.
Not only has he often brought clarity to the highly technical discussion around SYCL CTS issues, but he has also taken on co-leadership of CTS to drive SYCL 2020 CTS to conclusion, including helping to select the CTS candidate with his insightful comments. He does this by cleaning up existing CTS framework to enable cross-platform and cross-vendor testing while taking on all these extra duties with graciousness, genuine intellectual curiosity, and honesty.
For someone with such great intellect, he always strives to help everyone and never condescends. This welcoming attitude, IMHO, is one of the most important attributes that exemplifies the Khronos family’s atmosphere of inclusion and represents the pinnacle spirit of Open-Source Specification engineering.
Matthew Netsch Qualcomm
Online - March 2023
Matt has been a member of the Vulkan Working Group since 2016 and is the author of a number of extensions. In August 2021, on very short notice, he became chair of the CTS TSG, which was facing the daunting task of productizing the Vulkan 1.3 conformance test within a few months. His technical skills, thoughtfulness, patience, and leadership were critical to their success. Subsequently, he continued in the great tradition of Vulkan CTS TSG leaders, directing the work of up to four contractors, and developing new processes and workflows. He raised the group’s already high standard of efficiency and professionalism to new heights, bringing CTS coverage to over 1.6 million directed tests. Even after stepping down as CTS chair, he continued to go beyond the call of duty to ease the transition to new leadership. We’re grateful for his help!
Brent Insko Intel
F2F Phoenix 2022
Brent Insko took over as OpenXR Chair in November 2018. He led the group through the development and launch of OpenXR 1.0. He also represented OpenXR at numerous online and in-person events over this time. Brent stepped down from his Chair position in August. We would like to recognize his leadership over the past four years.
Brent Scannell Autodesk
F2F Phoenix 2022
Brent Scannell started as the 3D Formats WG Chair in April 2021. We are thankful for Brent’s leadership which resulted in submitting glTF becoming Khronos’ first International Standard through the ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS Process. Brent also provided many updates to the industry, representing 3D Formats at numerous virtual shows and webinars. We have appreciate Brent’s responsiveness and willingness to always help Khronos. He also obtained project funding through AUTODESK to support Pervasive 3D tutorials. He worked hard to liaise with other Khronos Working Groups and external organizations.
Kurt Akeley Retired
F2F Phoenix 2022
OpenGL 1.0 was released on June 30, 1992, 30 years ago! As any of you have heard, Kurt Akeley has recently retired. We’d like to celebrate the foundational impact that Kurt Akeley, the “father of OpenGL” has had on so many aspects of our work at Khronos. It’s not just the technical design of OpenGL that has stood the test of time, the spirit of openness and cooperation for the greater good is based on the principles established by OpenGL 1.0 many years ago
Lisie Aartsen Khronos Group
F2F Phoenix 2022
Lisie has worked as an events contractor for Khronos Group since January 2017. During that time she has organized many events for Khronos, including SIGGRAPH 2022. Ms. Lisie Aartsen performed a tremendous service for the Pervasive 3D Segment in her work by organizing and providing all of the logistics for the Birds of a Feather (BOF) sessions for SIGGRAPH 2022. She did this while also handling the early registration for the Khronos Fall 2022 Face to Face. She exhibited tremendous leadership by leading the WGs through the process of brainstorming for BOF ideas through the final presentation and distribution of slides, and excelled in resolving unforeseen changes while supporting us during our live presentations. Throughout the process she worked with the leaders and presenters to keep them apprised of due dates, registration dates, rehearsals, logistics, and presentations. She was also able to secure discounted registration for several of the presenters who would not have been able to attend. We feel that the presentations would not have been possible without her efforts.
Ann Thorsnes Khronos Group
F2F Phoenix 2022
Ann has been with Khronos since 2015. Ann has been instrumental in many of our backend operations – from working to organize and recreate all of our membership files, to diligently sending out renewal reminders and helping onboard new members or Adopters. Ann recently stepped up tremendously with the increase in Metaverse Standards Forum membership applications and inquiries. She worked so hard to answer all Forum inquiries in a timely and professional manner (100s of them!) while also having COVID. Ann is always so reliable and diligent in keeping many aspects of Khronos and the Forum membership on target. We would be lost without her and I hear constant compliments from our membership about how responsive and helpful she is. Ann truly deserves to be recognized – especially with the increased work with the Metaverse Standards Forum
Faith Ekstrand Collabora
F2F Phoenix 2022
Faith joined the Vulkan Working Group in 2015 and quickly became an important contributor, thanks to her deep knowledge of the Mesa driver stack, open source window systems, and multiple GPU architectures. As architect and tech lead for Intel’s open-source Vulkan driver, and more recently 3D graphics architect at Collabora, she has been a strong advocate for Vulkan adoption through her blogs, Twitter feed, and presentations at Linux conferences. She has also done a lot to help the Vulkan Working Group learn how to manage its growing GitHub presence and engage with the open source community. In the Working Group, Faith is a tireless reviewer who is listed as a contributor on forty-one extensions, and the author of five KHR extensions. The latter include VK_KHR_timeline_semaphore, for which she not only wrote the extension, but also secured approval of the Linux kernel changes needed to support it. In our weekly teleconferences, she speaks with authority on both technical and strategic questions, while her cheerful, practical approach, willingness to compromise, and sense of humor keep us smiling. If that wasn’t enough, she has been known to answer questions about feature feasibility or conformance test coverage by implementing and testing them in real time during the call! We’re lucky to have her in the group.
Norbert Nopper UX3D
Online 2022
Norbert Nopper has been instrumental in the development of a number of important projects within Pervasive 3D, including the glTF Sample Viewer, the certification evaluation, and Extension Catalog. He’s an active participant in all levels of working group discussions, offering his own genuine perspective on topics and stimulating productive debates. Norbert’s work within 3D Formats WG, PBR TSG, Tooling TSG, 3D Commerce WG, and Certification TSG exemplifies his level of commitment to Khronos and open standards!
Adam Morris Target
Online 2022
Adam has taken on numerous roles and has demonstrated technical and organizational leadership by co-chairing the Metadata TSG for the 3D Commerce Working Group, being the Outreach Officer for 3D Formats WG, and being the technical lead on Project Explorer. As Outreach Officer, he engaged the 3D Formats Advisory Panel to help 3D Formats Working Group navigate the large glTF eco-system. The glTF Project Explorer project was so successful that the next release has substantially increased the scope to include all public extensions, libraries, and tools that support any Khronos product. Adam is always willing and available for brainstorming and providing feedback. He continues to help lead Khronos in the right direction.
Greg Lueck Intel
Online 2022
Greg Lueck was a key contributor in delivering SYCL 2020 to the industry, and he continues to be actively involved in the group. Greg brings clarity to highly technical discussions around complex SYCL issues. His calm leadership during controversial topics makes it easier to find resolution. His welcoming attitude exemplifies the Khronos family atmosphere of inclusion and represents the pinnacle spirit of open-source specification engineering.
Jesse Hall Google
Online 2022
Jesse joined the Vulkan (GL Common) and OpenGL ES working groups in early 2013 and quickly distinguished himself for his technical contributions and understanding of ecosystem issues. He was a strong proponent of better conformance testing and drove many improvements in both test coverage and process. He is listed as a contributor on 44+ Vulkan extensions! Jesse advocated the need to address the entire ecosystem and not just a specification, a view that has become fundamental to the working group’s progress. Jesse is calm, scrupulously fair to competing ideas, intellectually rigorous, and a huge asset to the Khronos Group.
Alan Baker Google
Online 2022
Alan is a valued contributor in the SPIR Memory Model TSG. His work around SPIR-V making major progress in the area of reconvergence alone warrants this honor. The TSG applauds Alan for his tenacity and willingness to dive in and handle tough projects that drive Khronos standards forward.
Hwanyong Lee Ajou University
Online 2021
Hwanyong Lee is leading the effort in Korea acting as Khronos' liaison to JTC 1. Among his accomplishments, Hwanyong worked on the Collada Specification for the DIS Ballot. He has been the OpenVG Specification Editor and assists Khronos with invaluable technical translations. Hwanyong's constant smile, positive attitude and willingness to volunteer also make him a joy to work with. It’s an honor to call him part of our Khronos family.
Bill Licea-Kane Qualcomm
Online 2021
Bill LIcea-Kane is a long time member of the Khronos Group with over 20 years of involvement. Before his involvement with Khronos, Bill was an active contributor to ARB assembly language which was then released by OpenGL. He has served as the Chair of the OPC Committee and was a contributing author to the OpenGL Shading Language book. Bill was very active in the OpenGL 2.0 definition which includes GLSL. Bill is the person OpenGL experts go to for expert advice.
Shrenik Sadalgi Wayfair
Online 2021
Shrenik Sadalgi is the Chair of the 3D Commerce Working Group since its inception. During that time he led the working group and the four original technical sub groups to produce two extensions: KHR_materials_variants and KHR_xmp_json_Id to the glTF standard. In the last quarter, his group has seen the introduction of a Business Development TSG that may be used as a model for similar activities within Khronos. Shrenik has demonstrated tremendous leadership by inspiring others to get involved and maintaining a vision for 3D Commerce within Khronos and the 3D and e-commerce communities.
Ed Mackey AGI/ANSYS
Online 2021
Ed Mackey has been a consistently active member of the 3D Formats Working Groups since 2017. Prior to that he was a community contributor to the glTF 1.0 Specification. Ed is currently the Chair of the 3D Formats PBR TSG and continues to contribute to several glTF Sample Models, the glTF2.0 Specification, and numerous extensions. Ed frequently presents glTF at SIGGRAPH, proudly wearing his glTF shirt. His passion is contagious and we appreciate his efforts.
Ashleigh Miller Amazon
Online 2021
Ashleigh has co-chaired the Certification Task Sub Group since April 2020. During that period she has taken charge of several aspects of the Certification Program and documents including Rendered Reference Images according to her expertise as a technical artist. This work has successfully led to the approval of the 3D Commerce Certification program and her participation in the press interview with Martin and Leonard for the 3D Commerce Fireside Chat press event. She is an active leader with the Certification Task Sub Group and regularly presents the state of the TSG to the 3D Commerce Working Group. In addition to all of her work with the TSG, she also contributed and shared her expertise with Image Based Lighting with the PBR Next Task Sub Group of the 3D Formats Working Group and in the lead up to the Sample Viewer project. Her work provided valuable input into that project and set the foundation for lighting that allowed the project to start without a hitch.
Daniel Koch NVIDIA
Online 2021
Daniel was instrumental in steering the Vulkan Ray Tracing Task Sub Group towards a solution that despite initial development challenges, led to the seamless integration of ray tracing into the existing Vulkan framework. He was diplomatic and pragmatic throughout development, and consistently pushed the group forward. It was his first time chairing a group long-term, and he wore the hat very well. He has also been continuing to drive the improvements to the spec after release.
Daniel has been an active participant in the OpenGL and OpenGL ES Working Groups since 2008, and in Vulkan since its birth (GL/ES Convergence and GL Common Task Sub Groups). As TransGaming’s representative, he was a leader in making the GL APIs good porting targets for DX applications, and wrote or was primary contact on many high-profile extensions including ARB_framebuffer_object and ARB_draw_instanced. Since moving to NVIDIA in 2013, he has written or contributed to dozens of Vulkan extensions, and for the past three years has chaired the Vulkan Ray Tracing Task Sub Group, producing a large, complex, and very high profile extension package. In his spare time, he has made a specialty of helping Vulkan spin-off projects find their grooves and become successful, playing important roles in the Vulkan Portability Task Sub Group and the Vulkan SC Working Group. Through it all, he sets the highest standards for himself and for others, showing up week after week, keeping us honest when it comes to following our processes, volunteering for jobs from the trivial or mundane to the nearly impossible, staying focused, and keeping the end goal always in sight – always with a smile and a sense of humor! He is an inspiration to us all.
Alexey Knyazev Independent
Online 2021
Alexey has been continuously active in the 3D Formats Working Group since 2016. He is a technical expert and has made significant and sustained contributions in several key area. Alexey started and maintains the open-source, glTF validator tool that is central to the robustness of the glTF ecosystem. He has contributed significantly to the KTX 2.0 specification. In addition, Alexey has released lightweight, high-quality KTX 2.0 WebAssembly transcoding tools. He's a named contributor to several glTF extensions: KHR_texture_basisu, KHR_materials_clearcoat, KHR_mesh_quantization, and KHR_xmp_json_ld which exists primarily because of his extensive feedback on the shortcomings of the original XMP extension design. In addition, he has contributed countless glTF specification bug fixes. Alexey has the 3rd highest number of commits to the glTF GitHub repository.
Alexey is quiet, humble, and unassuming. He will not expect an award nor would he even think he is deserving. And, indeed, that is why he is.
Eric Chadwick Wayfair
Online 2021
Eric Chadwick has made significant contributions to the 3D Commerce and 3D Formats Working Groups, as well as the PBR Next, Asset Creation, and Certification Task Sub Groups. Eric is always there to help, being one of the first to volunteer to produce a model, texture, explanation, or documentation. The work he produces is extremely high-quality, whether it is using the latest PBR Next material with a Tiffany lamp (KTX featured model) or a high-end visualization of a model car on velvet (which was featured with public announcement for PBR Next Phase 1). He has also produced several models for the Certification Task Sub Group that are part of the certification test suite. In addition, he has made substantial and important written contributions to the Asset Creation Guidelines and KTX Artist User documentation.
James Riordon Khronos Group
Online 2021
For nearly 20 years, James Riordon has been an invaluable resource as a contractor to Khronos. As our web services provider, James ensures that all of Khronos’ digital infrastructure is secure, efficient and running properly. On top of that, he has worn many hats over the years and is always willing to jump in and help as needed. James’ attention to detail, proactiveness, and unwavering commitment have made him a steadfast figure within Khronos. Examples of James going “above and beyond” are numerous. He regularly works all hours of the day and night to provide outstanding, responsive support for our members and team. We are all so grateful to have James as part of the Khronos family.
Bryce Hutchings and Paul Pedriana Microsoft
Online 2020
Paul and Bryce's contributions to the OpenXR™ conformance test suite has been central to the Working Group getting the OpenXR standard delivered to the industry! Paul initiated and led the early conformance effort, and when Paul left, Bryce picked up the mantle to coordinate many CTS contributions from multiple members. For their diligent stewardship of the OpenXR conformance effort and significantly outsized contributions, Paul and Bryce richly deserve to be recognized.
Jesse Villarreal Texas Instruments
Online 2020
Jesse has been an integral part of OpenVX™ since its inception and continues to be a vital part of the standard’s ongoing growth. His technical contributions have been essential to enabling OpenVX to deliver widely adopted functionality, both in the core specification and as extensions. Jesse is also an effective OpenVX ambassador, giving numerous talks and OpenVX tutorials. Last but not least, Jesse manages the OpenVX GitHub releases for the Working Group and actively contributes to the sample code base. Thank you for all your efforts, insights and contributions Jesse!
Anastasia Stulova Arm
Online 2020
Anastasia has a key role in the OpenCL™ ecosystem, determinedly driving the availability and quality of open source compiler tooling such as C++ for OpenCL, and working hard to coordinate the integration and effective support of kernel languages in the OpenCL specifications. As chair of the OpenCL Tooling TSG, Anastasia is a tireless developer advocate and has been instrumental in forging much closer cooperation between Khronos and the clang/LLVM open source community. As well as her coordination skills and technical expertise, Anastasia has also been instrumental in improving OpenCL’s outreach and signposting of technical resources for the OpenCL community, earning the gratitude of both Khronos and developers everywhere.
John Kessenich Independent
Online 2020
John received a Khronie in 2013 based on his long-time editorship of the GLSL specification, creation of the glslang open-source compiler, and general leadership in the area of shading language design and issues. Since that time, he has made additional contributions which more than merit a second Khronie award. When the Vulkan project started in 2014, he played a critical role in designing the SPIR-V™ shading language IR, and served as lead author and editor of the SPIR-V specifications from then until his withdrawal from Khronos at the end of 2020. As part of the roll-out of Vulkan, his glslang compiler went from being a reference and the basis for a few open-source projects, to being an absolutely critical piece of the software ecosystem around Vulkan; it is used by essentially all Vulkan developers coding in GLSL, and generates nearly all of the SPIR-V executed by the Vulkan conformance test suite. After the launch of Vulkan he continued to participate actively in the Vulkan, OpenGL®, and SPIR-V Working Groups, maintain and edit the GLSL specifications (including major changes to expose Vulkan functionality), and maintain glslang. Since announcing his departure, he has worked diligently to ensure a smooth transition to other leadership. He leaves Khronos with the profound gratitude and best wishes of the Vulkan, OpenGL, and SPIR Working Groups.
Spencer Fricke Samsung
Online 2020
Spencer has been extremely active in the Vulkan® group since 2018. When he and his team began their Khronos involvement, his rush of early contributions might have been mistaken for youthful exuberance and the enthusiasm of someone not yet jaded by the API maintenance process :). However, Spencer’s continued commitment and exceptional productivity belies such cynicism: he has maintained a high level of work on behalf of the Vulkan group, fearlessly tackling and proposing fixes for problems in both the specification and the wider ecosystem that the rest of the Working Group lacked the courage or the energy to confront. His efforts have improved the quality of the Vulkan specification, the conformance tests, and the validation layers, AND he does the legwork to produce solutions that minimize the group overhead. He's punching way above his weight, and doing thankless work that removes distractions from other members with an energy and humility that is inspiring.
Leonard Daly Independent
Online 2020
Leonard diligently keeps 3D Commerce™ logistics on track and in good shape. Not only does he keep us honest with insight and good humor, he is also the glue between 3D Formats and 3D Commerce ensuring that neither group misses out on industry opportunities. His tireless efforts in co-chairing the Certification TSG has been vital to getting the initiative over the finish line. He brings an energy and passion into day to day activities, and in the multitude of roles he plays for Pervasive 3D and Khronos. His dedication has been inspiring and 3D Commerce just absolutely wouldn't be where we are without him. Thank you Leonard for your assistance to 3D Commerce - we look forward to your continued contributions and onto v2!
