Boris Yamnitsky

Yamnitsky emigrated from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s.^[1] He earned an M.A. in Mathematics from Boston University in 1982, where he studied theoretical computer science and linear programming.^[1][2]

In 1982, Yamnitsky co-authored a paper with Leonid A. Levin titled "An Old Linear Programming Algorithm Runs in Polynomial Time".^[3][4] The paper introduced an n-dimensional simplex-splitting technique, known as the Yamnitsky–Levin algorithm. The authors demonstrated that the number of splits required, denoted q(n), equals 1, which establishes polynomial-time behavior under certain conditions.^[2][5][6] The algorithm has been cited in studies on convex optimization, approximation algorithms, and linear programming methods.^[7][6][8][9] Yamnitsky documented the algorithm in his Master’s thesis.^[2]

Yamnitsky founded Boris FX in 1995 to develop software for visual effects, compositing, and post-production.^[10][11] He oversaw the development of software tools incorporating machine learning and AI for rotoscoping, object detection, motion estimation, image restoration, and audio denoising.^[12][13]

• 2017: Digital Video Industry Innovator Award from NewBay Media^[14]
• 2019: Engineering Emmy Awards for Sapphire, Mocha Pro, and Silhouette^[15]
• 2025: Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award for Continuum^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

• Yamnitsky, Boris & Levin, Leonid A. (1982). An Old Linear Programming Algorithm Runs in Polynomial Time. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (pp. 327–328). IEEE. doi:10.1109/SFCS.1982.63.^[5][22][23]