Chuck Hull (born May 12, 1939) is the co-founder, executive vice president and chief technology officer of 3D Systems.He is the inventor of the solid imaging process known as stereolithography (3D Printing), the first commercial rapid prototyping technology, and the STL file format. He is named on more than 60 U.S. patents as well as other patents around the world in the fields of ion optics and rapid prototyping. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.He won the European Inventor Award 2014 in the Non-European countries category for inventing 3D printing.