Academy Award winner and University alumnus Chris Landreth was the guest speaker at the 2005 Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM) spring banquet Saturday held to honor the achievements of students, professors and alumni for their work.

After a luncheon, a ceremony was held in the auditorium at Beckman Institute. Stanley Weiss, a former University professor, attended to present the Weiss Outstanding Thesis award to graduate student Rahul Panat. Pinaki Chakraborty, also a graduate student, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Faculty recognitions included honoring Daniel Riahi’s retirement. Also honored was TAM alumnus James Weber, named the 2004 Inventor of the Year for his work to reduce the diesel engine emission for Caterpillar, Inc.

After the presentation of scholarships and awards, Landreth addressed the audience as the final speaker of the ceremony.

Landreth, who received his master’s in TAM in 1986, won his first Oscar on Feb. 27 in the Best Animated Short Film category for Ryan, an animated documentary about the life of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin through recordings of real-life interviews. He was also nominated for the same category in 1996 for the end.

Susan Mumm, alumni coordinator at TAM, invited Landreth to speak at the banquet.

“I contacted him and he was very gracious about coming,” said Mumm.

Landreth gave a presentation, called “I Can Explain,” in which he briefly chronicled his indirect path from achieving a master’s degree in TAM to winning an Academy Award. Many career “pirouettes,” as Landreth referred to them, took him from fluid mechanics to the visualization of mechanics, to computer graphics and animation and finally to filmmaking.

After the presentation, Landreth showed his short film Ryan, an animated documentary that tells the story of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin through recordings of real-life interviews.

Landreth’s figure looks like himself, but with physical imperfections where emotional scars had affected him. This is an example of psychorealism, which “depicts things in a realistic way to show the realism of a person’s psychological state,” Landreth said.

Landreth’s most noticeable psychorealistic feature in the film is the rainbow-colored strands of hair that strangle his face in reference to his fear of failure, which consumes him at times during interviews with the half-faced Larkin.

The 14-minute film took three years to complete and is completely computer generated. His background in the field of fluid mechanics allowed him to bring a more left-brained, analytical approach to animation.

Nancy Sottos, interim department head of TAM, said the students and faculty of the department were all very honored and proud of Landreth’s acheivements as well as the fact that he came back to address the attendees.

Landreth said he was glad to come back and share his film. While he said he felt comfortable with speaking about his experiences and success, he added that he was appreciative of the accomplishments of those in attendance.

“It’s very humbling, in all seriousness,” he said. “I’m in a room with some very big brains.”