Jernej Barbič is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair and a Professor of Computer Science. His research includes computer graphics, tackling interdisciplinary problems from computer animation, graphics, simulation, mechanics, medical imaging and haptics.
The main focus of his research is physically based simulation of digital humans, animals, plants and man-made objects, for use in film industry, computer games, interactive CAD/CAM (airplane/automobile manufacturing), and virtual medicine (surgery simulation). His other interests include computer graphics, animation, real-time simulation, numerical mathematics, the Finite Element Method, applied mechanics, collision detection, contact, medical imaging, human body modeling, haptic rendering and model reduction.
Professor Barbic received an undergraduate Mathematics degree from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He received the computer science Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University, in 2007. He was a postdoctoral researcher at MIT from 2007 to 2009. He joined the Computer Science Department faculty at the University of Southern California in August 2009. In 2015, he was promoted to Associate Professor (with tenure), and in 2021 to Full Professor.
In 2025, he received an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in the Scientific and Technical Awards category for his work on Ziva VFX.
On winning an Academy Award:
“Winning a Scientific and Technical Academy Award was a reminder that academic research, when pursued with vision and rigor, can shape entire industries—and inspire audiences worldwide.“