NRI techie to recreate face of Washington

Anshuman Razdan, director of the Arizona State University's Partnership for Research in Spatial Modelling (PRISM), will create 3-D images by using forensics, computer and laser technology.

How did the first US president George Washington look like when he was 19, 45 or 57? In the absence of historical evidence, the job of creating life-size likenesses of Washington in his younger days has been entrusted to an Indian American computer scientist.

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Anshuman Razdan, director of the Arizona State University's Partnership for Research in Spatial Modelling (PRISM), will create 3-D images by using forensics, computer and laser technology.

The figures will depict Washington at 19 as a surveyor, at 45 as a general and at 57 taking the oath of office as the nation's first president, says a report in the Arizona Republic.

Washington, born in 1732, became the US's first president in 1789 at the age of 57. But there are no portraits of his younger days. The famous Gilbert Stuart paintings had not been done until a few years before Washington died in 1799.

Razdan, 40, and Jeffrey Schwartz, an anthropologist with University of Pittsburgh, have teamed up for the project which is part of a $85 million expansion plan for Washington's museum in Virginia.

Born in Karnal, Razdan came to the US in 1986 for graduate studies. He did his Master's in mechanical engineering and later earned a PhD. He took over as director of PRISM in 1999.