He is a Distinguished Scientist at NVIDIA and adjunct professor at the University of Utah in computer science.
He has made extensive contributions to interactive photorealistic rendering.
[3][4] Shirley was born on June 11, 1963, in Evanston, Illinois.
After one semester at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he transferred to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where received his BA in physics in 1985, and then received his PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1991.
[5] He then joined the faculty at Indiana University as an assistant professor.