Sherry Hitch, Department of Telecommunications 2006 Distinguished Alumna, will speak at noon, April 19 in the Ball Communication Building, room 129, on the Ball State campus. Her presentation is free and open to the public.    

Hitch, a visual effects compositor for George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, has worked on a number of films including "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Van Helsing," "War of the Worlds" and "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith."

In 1993, as a member of the innovative company Foundation Imaging, Hitch was instrumental in the visually groundbreaking special effects for "Babylon 5," the first television series to utilize feature quality effects. She was one of the few effects artists who received a Sci-Fi Universe Award for the series.

After working in 3-D animation, Hitch turned to compositing and soon became a supervising visual effects compositor, working on television projects such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Deep Space 9," "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Star Trek: Enterprise."

During her stint with Foundation Imaging from 1993 to 2002, Hitch was nominated for three Emmy Awards while contributing to a winning fourth Emmy.

Hitch resides in the San Francisco Bay area, where she is an active member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Visual Effects Society and Women in Film.

Hitch's current projects include work on the movies "Poseidon" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest."

For more information, contact Nancy Carlson at 285-1489 or ncarlson@bsu.edu.