Peking University, January 22, 2026: Chen Baoquan, Associate Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence, Peking University, was recently named a 2025 Fellow of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), joining the honor roll of the top 1% of global computing professionals.

He was recognized for contributions to large-scale scene reconstruction, discrete geometry processing, and shape design for manufacturing, which all fall under computer graphics, his main area of research.

Ever since he was invited by Wang Xuan himself to join what’s now the Wangxuan Institute of Computer Technology in 1994, he has devoted every aspect of his life to his technology dream, and now his achievements are benefiting millions in China and beyond. 

For almost two decades he has been recreating computer models of cities, or their “digital twins”, and this technology saved lives during the mega-flood in Henan in 2021. Through the message platform developed by him and his PhD students, every SOS message sent by the marooned was made a striking pin on the digital map, making swift rescue possible.

He walked into national spotlight again the next year, when his filming technology was used for highlight replay in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. By capturing every possible angle in an arena through multiple cloud-connected high-resolution cameras, his technology brought the bullet dodging scene in The Matrix into reality by freezing a particular moment in a game and providing an all-round perspective to the TV audience.

In 2024 he was inducted into the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy, becoming the first Chinese scholar to join the honorary group of individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of computer graphics.

Proceeding as fast as his technological breakthroughs are his strides on the road. Chen is an avid runner and draws parallels between running and his research journey.

“Running fast is not as good as running far,” he proclaimed at the 2023 School of Artificial Intelligence commencement. “You might be able to run fast by yourself, but what can make you run far is a group of people running alongside you.”

Written by: Chen Shizhuo
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
Photo illustration by: Chao Ranran
Source: ACM, PKU WeChat