Professor helps with animated films
Like many other Southern California families, Professor Stuart Sumida enjoys going on outings with his wife and two sons to the desert.
The Cal State San Bernardino biology professor also enjoys taking them on archeological “digs” for reptiles that lived millions of years ago.
“I don't study the dinosaurs,” he'll tell you. “I study animals much older than dinosaurs. Turns out, paleontology class is a big detective story.”
The northern U.S. — Montana, Wyoming, Utah and the Dakotas — are fossil-rich in finds from millions of years ago.
The vertebrate, paleontology professor is also a biology professor teaching human anatomy, a “Jurassic World” film consultant, and recipient of the Cal State San Bernardino Outstanding Professor Award.
You might say his interests go back to before time began.
Sumida, who joined the Cal State San Bernardino faculty in 1991, is considered one of the university's best for his passion and commitment in teaching as well as working with students, but he is quick to give credit to his colleagues, all stars in their own right.
Sumida's honors and awards include:
• Cal State San Bernardino Outstanding Professor.
• Cal State Wang Family Excellence Award — as the outstanding faculty member in the fields of natural sciences, mathematical, computer sciences and engineering.
• California Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Sumida's wife, Elizabeth Rega, is a paleontologist — as well — who teaches in Pomona. Their sons, Darwin, 19, and Owen, 14, join in for the archeological digs but prefer a hotel to camping in the big family tent, Sumida laughs.
“They call the digs ‘Jurassic Park' which it's not,” he said.
As the accomplished father of two teenage sons, Sumida said he is often teased by them.
“My kids are sort of blasé about paleontology,” he said. “They are really good on the digs where there is lots of walking and looking and can spot a tooth or a bone chip from a prehistoric fish.”
The boys started helping mom and dad when they were quite young.
Sumida's interest is in the transition of the earliest reptiles that got out of the water, in what it took for them to be independent.
Sumida is also known internationally as an anatomy consultant to film animators, including Disney and Pixar films. Animation is all about how animals move, he'll tell you.
In all, he has consulted with more than 60 filmmakers — from “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” the first Harry Potter film, “Kung Fu Panda,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and one of his favorites, “Ratatoulle.”
The professor has been on paleontology digs all over the world.
“Some people have told me I have an exciting life,” he said. “I do feel very fortunate. There are so many incredible, amazing people there.”
“My job for the character I'm helping with is to figure out how it would move with the shape it has. Sometimes the character is already drawn, but we still want them to move naturally in the universe in which they live,” he explained.
The first animated film to earn a best picture nomination was “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991.
The next two nominees were “Up” in 2009 and “Toy Story 3” in 2010.
“I was invited by the animations supervisors at Pixar to help with the character of Mr. Mittens, a character in ‘Soul,'” Sumida said. The movie is nominated for best animated feature film from the Academy Awards. The ceremony will be held April 25.
And because the professor has so much extra time, he also teaches Kitu martial arts class, something he's been doing for 50 years, said Sumida, who is now 62.
Stuart Sumida's father is Hawaiian and his mother is German and lives in Wisconsin. When his dad, who is a pediatrician, left the Air Force, the family moved to California where Sumida attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks and then UCLA. When it was time for doing his graduate work, he chose the University of Chicago, which is “nerd heaven,” he said.
He loved UCLA because it was like a “little city,” he said. It is also where he met Elizabeth.