Research

Color Appearance Models

Color appearance models try to account for how viewing conditions affect our perception of color. They use information about visual stimulus, background, surround, and the color and intensity of the illumination to predict perceptual attributes such as brightness, lightness, colorfulness, chroma, saturation and hue.

Research I conducted during graduate studies at the Munsell Color Science Lab at RIT analyzed and improved the logical/mathematical consistency of the state-of-the-art color appearance model CIECAM16. This work can be found here.

While at the Munsell lab, I also developed psychophysical methods to build a novel model of the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect, the latest iteration of which is published here. The H-K effect is the phenomenon where colors appear brighter as they become more saturated even if their luminance stays the same. For those interested in the H-K effect, I would recommend checking out recent research on a new modeling framework coming out of RIT. My research can also be found in my thesis.

My interest in color appearance models has evolved into involvement with the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). I am currently serving as technical committee chair for TC1-100: To Recommend CAM16-UCS as the CIE Uniform Colour Space and as division reporter for DR1-72: Developments in Colour Appearance Research and Models. Both reports should be published in 2027 for those interested.

Lighting

Color scientists are still trying to measure how the visual system adapts to the color of illumination. My thesis explored how our brain might compensate when our eyes do not completely adapt to the color of light in environments with multiple light colors. Recently, I have been thinking, reading and writing more broadly about how novel lighting environments can challenge our normal modes of being and perceiving. Selected bibliography:

  • Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa
  • The Practice of Light by Sean Cubitt
  • Raving by McKenzie Wark
  • Writing on Raving eds. Zoë Beery, Geoffrey Mak and McKenzie Wark
  • Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision ed. David Michael Levin
  • Anathem and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  • An Immense World by Ed Yong

Teaching

I have joyously been appointed Assistant Professor in Department of Science & Math at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. I currently teach some combination of the following courses:

  • Color Science for Photography: an introduction to color science with a focus on photography and images. Students learn color measurement, color spaces, camera calibration and profiles and other rotating topics.
  • Color & Light: an introduction to color measurement, the interaction of light and matter, color spaces, with special topics in color vision, lighting, fluorescence, and gloss.
  • Forensics of Fiber Analysis: An introduction to methods of fiber analysis and other forensic methods. Students also undertake a module in natural dyeing.
  • Lighting and our Environment: A new class that will run in Spring 2027 covering all aspects of the science of light and lighting, including color rendering, energy efficiency and the health impacts of light, with a special project on measuring light in our built environment.
  • Introduction to Physical Science: A class on the process of science.

Links for my students:

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