While working towards his B.A. in
physics at
Harvard College in 1967, Sproull met
Ivan Sutherland. Together, they worked on
head-mounted displays, which led the way for 3-dimensional
virtual reality. Sproull received his master's degree in
computer science from
Stanford University in 1970, and doctorate in computer science from Stanford in 1977. the first
laser printers, page description languages and the initial PC-type
operating systems. In 1973, Sproull and
William M. Newman wrote
Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics; a second edition was published in 1979. This was the first comprehensive textbook on computer graphics, and was regarded as the graphics "bible," until it was succeeded by
Foley and
van Dam's
Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice. Sproull was an associate professor of computer science at
Carnegie Mellon University. In 1980, Bob Sproull and Ivan Sutherland founded a consulting firm, Sutherland, Sproull and Associates. In 1990,
Sun Microsystems bought out Sutherland, Sproull and Associates for its patents and key people. This led to the creation of
Sun Microsystems Laboratories, where Sproull worked on
asynchronous processor design. In 2006 he became director of the laboratories. In 2010 after
Sun was purchased by
Oracle Corporation, it became Oracle Labs. Sproull is also a member of the
National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on the
US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He is a former chair of the
United States National Research Council's
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB). He has co-authored several books in addition to
Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics, such as
Logical Effort, and holds 7 patents. == Publications ==