John E. Warnock, PhD –\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Since Dr. John Warnock co-founded Adobe in 1982 with Dr. Charles Geschke, the two have worked closely together to develop a stream of pioneering software products that have established Adobe as leader and innovator in digital experiences across every screen. For nearly three decades, Warnock\u2019s vision and passion have been integral to Adobe\u2019s success, building the company from a small start-up to one of the largest, most recognized software brands in the world. He was president of Adobe for the company\u2019s first two years and CEO for the next 16 years. Warnock retired as CEO in 2000 and as the company\u2019s CTO in 2001. He served as chairman of the board from April 1989 to January 2017, sharing that position with Geschke from September 1997 onwards. Today, he remains a member of Adobe\u2019s board of directors. Before co-founding Adobe, Warnock was a principal scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Prior to joining Xerox, he held key positions at Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, IBM and the University of Utah<\/span><\/p>\n In his 1969 doctoral thesis, Warnock invented the\u00a0Warnock algorithm<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0hidden surface determination<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0computer graphics<\/a>.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0It works by\u00a0recursive subdivision<\/a>\u00a0of a scene until areas are obtained that are trivial to compute. It solves the problem of rendering a complicated image by avoiding the problem. If the scene is simple enough to compute then it is rendered; otherwise it is divided into smaller parts and the process is repeated.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Warnock notes that for this work he received “the dubious distinction of having written the shortest doctoral thesis in University of Utah history”.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n In 1976, while Warnock worked at\u00a0Evans & Sutherland<\/a>, a\u00a0Salt Lake City<\/a>-based computer graphics company, the concepts of the\u00a0PostScript<\/a>\u00a0language were seeded. Prior to co-founding Adobe, with Geschke and Putman, Warnock worked with Geschke at\u00a0Xerox<\/a>‘s Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC<\/a>), where he had started in 1978. Unable to convince Xerox management of the approach to commercialize the\u00a0InterPress<\/a>\u00a0graphics language for controlling printing, he, together with Geschke and Putman, left Xerox to start Adobe in 1982. At their new company, they developed an equivalent technology, PostScript, from scratch, and brought it to market for Apple’s\u00a0LaserWriter<\/a>\u00a0in 1985.<\/span><\/p>\n In the spring of 1991, Warnock outlined a system called “Camelot”,[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0that evolved into the\u00a0Portable Document Format<\/a>\u00a0(PDF) file-format. The goal of Camelot was to “effectively capture documents from any application, send electronic versions of these documents anywhere, and view and print these documents on any machines”. Warnock’s document contemplated:<\/span><\/p>\n Imagine if the IPS (Interchange PostScript) viewer is also equipped with text searching capabilities. In this case the user could find all documents that contain a certain word or phrase, and then view that word or phrase in context within the document. Entire libraries could be archived in electronic form…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n One of Adobe’s popular\u00a0typefaces<\/a>,\u00a0Warnock<\/a>, is named after him.<\/span><\/p>\n Adobe’s PostScript technology made it easier to print text and images from a computer, revolutionizing media and publishing in the 1980s.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2003, Warnock and his wife donated 200,000 shares of\u00a0Adobe Systems<\/a>\u00a0(valued at over $5.7\u00a0million)[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0to the University of Utah as the main gift for a new engineering building. The John E. and Marva M. Warnock Engineering Building was completed in 2007 and houses the\u00a0Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute<\/a>\u00a0and the Dean of the\u00a0University of Utah College of Engineering<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Warnock holds seven patents. In addition to Adobe Systems, he serves or has served on the board of directors at\u00a0ebrary<\/a>,\u00a0Knight-Ridder<\/a>,\u00a0MongoNet<\/a>,\u00a0Netscape Communications<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Salon Media Group<\/a>. Warnock is a past Chairman of the\u00a0Tech Museum of Innovation<\/a>\u00a0in San Jose. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the\u00a0American Film Institute<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Sundance Institute<\/a>.<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n <\/p>\n….<\/strong><\/h3>\n