site.btaBulgarian Javor Kalojanov Wins Oscar for Technical Achievement

Bulgarian Javor Kalojanov together with Kimball Thurston won a Scientific and Technical Award from the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the creation of Weta FX's ML Denoiser. Their work on the innovation, which removes visual noise from computer-generated images while keeping the important details, was awarded at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 29, the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia reported on Thursday.

Kalojanov and Thurston are on the team of Weta FX, a world-leading studio in New Zealand behind the special effects of blockbusters such as Avatar, The Lord of the Rings, and Planet of the Apes.

The Oscar acknowledges the Bulgarian contribution to the development of the innovative ML Denoiser. The new strategies developed by Kalojanov and Thurston use machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to remove noise from computer-generated images and achieve the highest standards. 

Javor Kalojanov studied at the Sofia High School of Mathematics and then graduated from the German High School in the Bulgarian capital in 2004. He went to Germany, where he obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees, followed by a PhD in computer science at the University of Saarland in 2016. Between 2016 and 2018, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Visual Computing Institute - RWTH Aachen University, where he focused on innovative approaches in computer graphics and visualization. In 2018, he joined the team of Weta FX.