Werner Purgathofer is professor at the Vienna University of Technology, responsible 
for research and education in computer graphics. He received a Ph.D. in 1984 from TU Vienna. He has written a German language textbook on computer graphics and has organised two Eurographics annual conferences in Vienna. Purgathofer is the scientific director of VRVis (www.vrvis.at), which he founded in 2000. In 2006 he received the Distinguished Career Award from Eurographics, in 2010 a Dr.h.c. from TU Iasi, and in 2017 the Eurographics Gold Medal.