Barry Sandrew, Ph.D.

From Harvard/MGH neuroscientist to internationally recognized serial entrepreneur, digital imaging expert and visual effects (VFX) pioneer, Barry Sandrew has over 30 patents and decades of feature film and TV accomplishments including productions for all the major Hollywood studios, TV networks and several cable channels. Sandrew is founder of 2 production studios that became gold standards for color VFX. In 2000, he established the first and longest operating U.S. owned VFX studio in India.
Dr. Sandrew earned his doctorate in neuroscience from SUNY at Stony Brook and immediately won an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons. Upon completion of his Fellowship he became staff neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). It was in the department of neuroradiology at MGH that he was introduced to the nascent industry of digital medical imaging. It was his innovative work employing color to improve diagnostic imaging as well as his early work on 3D brain reconstruction from PET, CT and MRI scans that caught the attention of entrepreneurs from the entertainment industry who enticed Sandrew to leave academia in order to invent the first, all digital process for colorizing black and white feature films.
In 1987 Sandrew invented digital colorization and founded American Film Technologies, Inc. (AFT). Between 1987 and 1993, he colorized over 250 films, 180 TV episodes and 70 cartoons. In 1990, he invented a digital ink and paint, compositing and special effects system for Spielberg's first digital animated feature film, We're Back, A Dinosaur Story, Gahan Wilson's classic animated short, The Diner and the Fox episodic TV series Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. He also produced all restoration and color visual effects for the ABC miniseries, War and Remembrance and the John Lennon documentary, Imagine. Barry Sandrew took AFT public in 1988 growing its stock price from $0.40 to $14 and achieving a market capitalization of over $150 million.
In 1993 Sandrew co-founded Lightspan, an edutainment company that produced CD content for the K-6 school market. At Lightspan, Barry

Sandrew built a traditional and CGI animation studio dedicated to producing the highest quality educational curriculum and he was responsible for identifying an affordable console platform on which to play the content (Sony PlayStation). Lightspan became one of the largest educational software companies in the U.S., selling into entire school districts reading, math and language arts curriculum that met all state standards. The Company went public in 1997 reaching a market capitalization of over $800 million. Lightspan was later acquired by Plato Learning.
In 2000 Sandrew re-invented colorization and founded Legend Films. There he produced 100 colorized feature films for the company’s library as well as colorized films for Fox, Sony, Universal and Paramount. Barry Sandrew also produced color effects for Scorsese’s The Aviator, HBO’s Entourage, the CBS Sports Special, Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta: The 1960 Masters, the CBS DVD releases and TV specials, Lucy Goes to Scotland and The Italian Movie as well as the ESPN Sports Special, The Greatest Game Ever Played: Giants vs Colts - 1958.
In 2007 Sandrew invented a process for converting 2D films to 3D, changing the company name to Legend3D. Beginning in 2010, Sandrew oversaw creative & technical teams in the 3D conversion of Alice In Wonderland, the Shrek Trilogy, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and many more tent-pole films at the height of the 3D phenomenon. In subsequent years the teams Barry Sandrew led have worked on the 3D conversion and VFX of more than 45 of the highest grossing 3D feature films of the past 7 years as well as many high profile commercial projects.
Dr. Sandrew is currently serving a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the Visual Effects Society. He is also a Charter Member, a member of the Executive Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs, South Coast Chapter) and he is a member of the Board of Advisors for EvoNexus, the only pro bono startup incubator serving Southern California.
In 2015, Dr. Barry Sandrew left Legend3D to concentrate on new immersive and web based media technologies as well his non-profit and for-profit board positions. Dr. Sandrew is currently focused on emerging opportunities in augmented reality, the Internet of Things and 3D sensor technology - Converging our Real & Digital Worlds.