Steve Sullivan: Not Your Average Oscar

Name: Steve Sullivan

UMR connection: 1989 grad, electrical engineering

Starring role: principal engineer, R&D, Industrial Light + Magic, the visual effects company of George Lucas (Star Wars).

Most famous for: Winning the Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2001, along with Eric Schafer, a fellow ILM technician.

Is that an Oscar? Technically, no. Sullivan won the Academy Award, but didn't get the little gold statuette.

MARS Attacks! Sullivan and Schafer developed the Motion and Structure Recovery System (MARS), which analyzes camera and object motion for special effects work.

Why MARS is so cool: "The way movies and special effects have evolved, almost everything shot has moving parts in the image that need to be fixed with computer-generated images. Now film makers can shoot whatever they want and no longer have restrictions on how they shoot the footage."

A long time ago, in a cineplex far, far away. Sullivan watched in awe as the cinematic wonders of Star Wars played across the big screen.

Use the force, Steve! After watching a behind-the-scenes program on the making of Jurassic Park, Sullivan decided to get into the special effects business. "They were doing it all very laboriously, very primitively."

Resume-builders: Sullivan has worked special effects wizardry for Minority Report, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Planet of the Apes, among other feature films.

UMR at the movies: "Engineering experience is critical for my work. My electrical engineering background is often more useful than my computer background."