RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — Ping Fu, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Geomgic, a 3D software imaging firm, is Inc. magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Fu chose to view the honor as one for the company, which she co-founded in 1996 along with Herbert Edelsbrunner, rather than as an honor simply for herself.

“I’m very honored to receive this recognition,” Fu said in a statement. “But no award is won by an individual alone. I thank my husband and daughter for their love and support, Geomagic employees for building a valuable and interesting company, and Inc. magazine for being the first major publication to write about the power of DSSP (digital shape sampling and processing).”

Fu will be featured on the cover of the magazine’s December issue.

The award is hardly the first for Fu. She was named the 2005 Women in Business award winner in the Research Triangle. The award was presented by The Triangle Business Journal. Business Leader magazine also named Fu as its “Entrebizneur” of the year. Fu also cracked the Fast Company’s “Fast 50” list in 2004.

In 2003, she was named one of eight Entrepreneurs of the Year in North Carolina by Ernst & Young.

“Ping Fu, who appears on this month’s cover, is a moving example of what makes entrepreneurs so compelling, and I am proud that Inc. is the first publication to tell the story of her life and her business,” said John Koten, the magazine’s editor in chief.

Fu moved to the United States from China in 1982.

“Ping is the kind of person who can just reach into you, find what inspires you and turn the knob to full blast,” said writer John Brant. He added that Geomagic “has defined and dominated the high-tech field of digital shape sampling and processing, or DSSP. DSSP technology holds so much promise because it is universally applicable; any object, animate or inanimate, natural or manmade, of any shape or size, still or, in some cases, moving, can be digitally processed.”

Geomagic software is used in the 3D rendering of objects that can be used for creations of simulated object or recreations of historical objects and other uses.

Geomagic has doubled in size over the past year with revenues increasing more than 600 percent. The company has also expanded overseas, opening subsidiaries in Asia and Europe.

Raindrop Geomagic: www.geomagic.com