I noticed amongst all the names of developers here that Duncan Brinsmead was not included. He is another principal scientist at Autodesk. He worked heavily on physics as we knew it before they turned it into nCloth and is still working on it. He also does a LOT of light research from what he spoke of at his most recent presentation here in Toronto.

If you check out the-area website, you can find out about all kinds of events that autodesk hosts (in various cities) and that people are hosting with autodesk's affiliation.