Luciana Varkevisser, Contributing Photographer

Theodore Kim joined Pauli Murray College students for a candid conversation about his journey from Oscar-winner to Yale professor.

Pauli Murray Head of College Tina Lu hosted students for tea, biscuits, cannolis and conversation with Kim on Monday. 

Kim boasts a robust resume, consisting of two Oscars, a role as a previous senior research scientist at Pixar Research and a current co-leader of the Yale Computer Graphics Group. In addition, he is an associate professor of computer science at the University and won the Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement in both 2012 and 2022.

Following the discussion, students were able to ask Kim about his time at Pixar and at Yale. 

“I just thought it was very eye-opening to see the process of how these films are actually made that I grew up watching,” said Brandon Nguyen ’26. 

In the past, Lu has invited the Rev. William Barber, the founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, Yale Investments Office alumna Anne Martin and distinguished nonfiction prose writer Louis Menand for college teas in Pauli Murray.

Kim’s advice to Yale students is to take full advantage of all that Yale has to offer.

“Getting a broad, liberal arts education is more important than ever,” Kim said. “We are seeing what happens in the world when people graduate with purely STEM degrees. They are ill-equipped to make nuanced decisions in ambiguous situations, and have little understanding of the historical contexts they are making them in.”

Kim shared discussed experience in the nexus of social issues and STEM. 

The Oscar winner has published several papers and articles, including “Countering Racial Bias in Computer Graphics Research” and “The Racist Legacy of Computer-Generated Humans,” illustrating the racial bias in computer animation. His paper “Lifted Curls: A Model for Tightly Coiled Hair Simulation,” won the best paper award at the Symposium of Computer Animation.

Lu said she enjoyed listening to Kim as she felt he was a “living demonstration” of how society is “one intellectual community.

“I’m always excited to have guests who draw connections between their own fields and others, in this case between the sciences and the humanities,” Lu told the News.

Angelica Pham ’26 said she enjoyed how candid Kim was on the topic of racial bias in computer animation.

Kim spoke about how the growth of AI poses a worry for many professionals in the field of art and computer animation. He mentioned that AI can now be used to create any image at the click of a button, however, Kim said he believes that it is not the future of art. 

“I hope that new artists create new styles in opposition to the hideously diffused grotesqueries currently coming out of generative AI,” said Kim.

Kim has been working as an associate professor at Yale for three years.