Melvin Lewis Prueitt

Melvin Lewis Prueitt was born in 1932 in Wickes, Arkansas. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s from the University of Arizona, and a doctorate in physics from the University of New Mexico. Prueitt spent 31 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked on energy systems, fluid dynamics, and computational modeling. He was one of the earliest scientists at Los Alamos to use computers for artistic creation, often bringing home experimental plots for his children to color, an act that marked the beginning of his artistic curiosity.

Around the late 1960s and early 1970s, Prueitt began to focus on computer-generated imagery, ultimately developing Artistique, a ray tracing program that allowed others to easily create images using digital tools. His artworks were published in National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, and other magazines, and exhibited at venues such as the Siggraph Art Show. In his 1980 book Art and the Computer, Prueitt documented his methods and vision, contributing to the early dialogue around digital aesthetics.

Prueitt was also a prolific inventor, holding 27 patents across fields such as clean energy, desalination, and advanced power plant systems. He viewed both his scientific and artistic endeavors as extensions of creative problem-solving. Prueitt passed away in 2016.