The Academy Award-winning visual effects artist has worked on nearly 50 films from Star Wars and The Matrix Reloaded to Iron Man 3

In 1976, Bruce Nicholson landed his first big job on a feature film—a little movie known as Star Wars. A springboard into the realm of battling starships and snow-stomping AT-AT walkers, that film propelled the visual effects master on a journey into the magic of cinema.

Nearly 40 years later, with two Oscar wins and a filmography spanning dozens of beloved blockbusters, Nicholson, who has taught visual effects classes in the School of Animation & Visual Effects since 2013, will be teaching M.F.A. cinematography courses as well.

In the 1970s, Nicholson explained, George Lucas’ visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) employed a young group of rather inexperienced, but enthusiastic “hippies.” Led by a few industry stalwarts like John Dykstra and Richard Edlund, Nicholson and his team forged their way through unchartered territory, experimenting with new technologies like motion control cameras and compositing scenes with optical printers, choreographing groundbreaking sequences that made audience's jaws drop.