ITHACA, N.Y. -- Top executives from Pixar, the animation studio that created "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters, Inc.," and other animation experts who, collectively, have won six Oscars, will be on the Cornell University campus, April 19-22, to meet with students interested in the digital arts. They will give four free public talks, one each day, as well as take part in small-group sessions with students in Professor Donald Greenberg's classes on art, animation and technology.

The visit and talks are part of Digital Arts Graphics Week at Cornell and the prestigious Preston H. Thomas Memorial Lecture Series at the College of Architecture, Art and Planning's Department of Architecture. Co-sponsors at Cornell are the Program of Computer Graphics, the Faculty of Computing and Information Science and the Department of Architecture.

Greenberg, the J.G. Schurman Professor of Computer Graphics, hopes the week will be a prelude to the development of a full-blown major in the digital arts spanning three to four colleges. Such a program would build on the success of the Program of Computer Graphics at Cornell, which is internationally known for its pioneering advances in photo-realistic rendering and has graduated students who are now leaders in the entertainment industry, he said. "This combining of art and science is precisely what Cornell can do best," observed Greenberg, director of the computer graphics program.

"In recent years, there has been enormous demand for courses in digital arts and graphics, spurred by the popularity and financial success of the entertainment industry," said Greenberg.

As a result, two new courses are being taught in computer animation, adding to the interest in the possibility of an interdisciplinary major. In addition, "achievements in the digital arena have provided an impetus for many of the recent scientific advances in computer graphics in other disciplines," he said.

Information on the four Digital Arts Graphics Week public talks and speakers, four of whom were former students of Greenberg's at Cornell, follows:

o Monday, April 19: "A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Moviemaking," Rob Cook, vice president of research and development, Pixar, 4:30 p.m., Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall; o Tuesday, April 20: "Crisis in Production," Ed Catmull, president, Pixar, 7:30 p.m., Statler Auditorium;

o Wednesday, April 21: "The Digital Michelangelo Project," Marc Levoy, professor, Stanford University, 4:30 p.m., Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall; and

o Thursday, April 22: "Digital Imagery in Entertainment," George Joblove, senior vice president of technology, Sony Imageworks, and Douglas Kay, chairman, Mondo Media, 4:15 p.m., Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall.

Cook, Cornell M.S. '82, developed with Kenneth Torrance, Cornell professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, a physically based model of light-surface interaction that realistically simulates color and shading. Before that discovery, computer-generated images had a distinctly plastic look. At Lucasfilm/Pixar, Cook helped develop a way for computer-generated imagery to match the live-action footage. He was the co-architect and primary author of Pixar's RenderMan, which earned Cook and two colleagues the first Oscar ever given for software.

Catmull is a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. As vice president of Lucasfilm, he managed computer graphics, video editing, video games and digital audio development efforts. He has won three scientific and technical engineering awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMP) for his work, including sharing the Oscar for RenderMan. In 1993 he won the Coons Award, the highest achievement in computer graphics, for lifetime contributions (also won in 1987 by Greenberg).

Levoy, Cornell B.Arch. '76, M.Arch. '78, is an associate professor of computer science and of electrical engineering at Stanford University. In the 1990s he worked on technology for digitizing three-dimensional objects that led to the Digital Michelangelo Project. In that project, he and a team of researchers digitized the statues of Michelangelo in Italy using laser scanners.

Joblove, Cornell B.S. '76, computer science, M.S. '79, computer graphics, has helped produce such Sony films as "The Matrix Reloaded," "Spider-Man," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "Seabiscuit" and "Big Fish." He was founder and manager of Industrial Light and Magic's computer graphics department. Credits there include "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day."

Kay, Cornell B.S. '76, computer science, M.S. '79, computer graphics, currently guides Mondo Media's strategic direction. He was chief technical officer of LucasArts Entertainment Co. and senior manager for digital operations at Industrial Light and Magic, where he helped pioneer digital technology in such films as "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator 2." He received an AMP technical achievement award for his work in developing digital compositing technology.

Also meeting with the executives will be students in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management who have taken Greenberg's class in Disruptive Technology and members of the school's Media and Entertainment and High Tech student clubs.