RIT Scientist Recognized by Royal Photographic Society

The Royal Photographic Society recently named a Rochester Institute of Technology scientist the winner of a prestigious international award for his contributions to imaging science and color research. The RPS Annual Awards recognize individual achievements and contributions to the art and science of photography.

Mark Fairchild is the recipient of the Davies Medal, established in 1998 to honor those whose work advances imaging science, especially digital methods that improve upon traditional or chemical imaging. Kodak European Research and Development sponsored the medal in memory of E. R. Davies, a former research director of the Harrow Laboratories. Fairchild will receive his award at an Oct. 4 ceremony in London.

“I was a photographer before I was a scientist, and it means a great deal to me personally to be recognized by a group that has been an important part of photography from the very beginning,” says Fairchild, the director of Munsell Color Science Laboratory in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at RIT. “I am honored that the RPS feels my work has had a meaningful influence on the art and science of photography.”

Fairchild’s research focuses on color reproduction, image appearance, and high-dynamic-range imaging. Examples of his work will be included on a DVD produced for the awards ceremony and a selected image will be added to the National Media Museum in Bradford, England, which has a collaborative arrangement with the Royal Photographic Society.

The Davies Medal recognizes Fairchild’s contributions to the understanding of color perception and imaging as well as color-appearance modeling, image appearance, image preference, image perception, color measurement, image and video quality measurement, high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging, image rendering and video rendering.

Fairchild’s recent work continues to explore the iCAM image appearance framework to improve video quality, HDR rendering and gamut-volume perception. The iCAM algorithms predict digital image quality and model various stages of the human visual system, such as local adaptation, contrast sensitivity, contrast masking and local enhancement.

Fairchild is the author of numerous publications including Color Appearance Models, now in its second edition. Details about one Fairchild’s latest research efforts, an HDR Photographic Survey, are available at www.cis.rit.edu/fairchild/HDR.html.

For more information about the Royal Photographic Society, visit www.rps.org.