Jim Von Ehr – Class of '68

In 1983 Jim developed two games for the Texas Instruments PC: "Sneggit" and "Slymoids". Today, he is the founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Zyvex Corporaton, the country's first nanotechnology development company — quite a stretch!

Besides creating computer games and before becoming a Physicist, Jim was busy building a small programming project in his dining room into a major player in the desktop publishing industry...Altsys Corporation. Ever heard of "FreeHand", "Fontographer", or "FONTastic" — he co-developed them. Ever wonder how different desktop publishing programs share graphic files? Jim was the instigator and principal author of the Encapsulated PostScript File Format (EPSF). In fact, he holds five U.S. Patents relating to computer graphics. Ever heard of "Gridders", the 3DO game? Jim did the sound and puzzle effects for it.

Jim frequently travels to Changchun, China as a Guest Professor at Jilin University. The city is best known for Jilin University, and for being the site of "The Last Emperor", the place where the Japanese set up a puppet emperor to control China early in the 20th century. He first went there in a delegation from the University of Texas at Dallas. (He is shown here with Professors Zheng and Gao.)

Jim went to Michigan State University after graduation and earned a degree in Computer Science. He also holds a Masters Degree Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas. Jim lives with his wife Gayla in Richardson Texas.

In recognition of his many achievements, he received the MSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004. In 2006, he received both the Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award and the Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumnus Award in the College of Engineering. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, and was awarded the City of Richardson's Ernest Randall Award for Economic Development in 2004.

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