Keenan Crane

2021 Early Career Academic Achievement Alumni Award

Keenan Crane’s (BS CS ‘06) abilities as both a proficient researcher and highly capable teacher earned him a place on Carnegie Mellon University faculty in the Computer Science Department and the Robotics Institute beginning in 2015. Crane will be promoted to Associate Professor this year. Prior to his time at Carnegie Mellon, Crane was an NSF Mathematical Science Postdoctoral Fellow from 2013-15 at Columbia University.

His work led to several accomplishments including a Packard Fellowship and an NSF CAREER Award. Crane was also a Google PhD Fellow in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech. He’s authored a book titled, “An Excursion into Discrete Differential Geometry,” which was published in 2021. Additionally, his work has led to nearly 50 journal articles, publications, and invited papers.

Crane’s work applies insights from differential geometry to develop fundamental algorithms and data structures for geometric computing. His accomplishments in this area have been featured in venues such as Communications of the ACM and Notices of the AMS, as well as in the popular press through outlets such as WIRED, Popular Mechanics, National Public Radio, and Scientific American.