Shree K. Nayar is the T. C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He heads the Columbia Computer Vision Laboratory (CAVE). His research is focused on three areas; the creation of novel cameras, the design of physics based models for vision, and the development of algorithms for scene understanding. His work is motivated by applications in the fields of digital imaging, computer graphics, and robotics.

He has received the David Marr Prize (1990 and 1995), the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (1992), the National Young Investigator Award (1993), the NTT Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award (1994), the Columbia Great Teacher Award (in 2006), and the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Achievement Award (in 2009). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.