AIC Judd Award

Since 1973, when Betty Judd proposed to establish an AIC award in memory of her husband, Deane Brewster Judd, to recognize outstanding work in the field of color science, the AIC has been carrying out the process of selection of the recipients for this award every two years. The selection is an arduous procedure that includes nominations by AIC members and analysis of antecedents of the nominees by a Committee composed of previous recipients of the award.

As chairman of the Judd Award Committee, AIC Vice President Berit Bergström informs that the winner of the AIC Deane B. Judd Award 2009 is Dr. Arne Valberg. She can report that they have received four single nominations and one jointly nomination. All nominees have made outstanding contributions to our understanding of colour. Berit Bergström really hopes that they all will continue working in the international colour community for many years to come. The members of the 2009 Judd Award Committee have been: Paula Alessi, Robert Hunt, John Hutchings, Mitsuo Ikeda, Daniel Lozano, Alan Robertson, Lars Sivik, Gunnar Tonnquist and Pieter Walraven. These nine previous winners of the award and past president gave very careful consideration to the nominations.

Arne Valberg was born on December 31st, 1938. Below is an excerpt from his bio sketch as published by the AIC.

Education and positions

• Studies at the Univ. of Oslo and Univ. of Basle, CH 1961-1967
• Graduated as Cand real in Physics, Univ. of Oslo 1967
• Research associate, Univ. of Basle, CH 1968-1971
• Dr. philos, Univ of Oslo 1976
• Ranked 2 for a Professorship in Biophysics, Univ. of Trondheim 1976
• Research Scientist, Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities, Univ. of Oslo, University of California, San Diego
• Max Planck Inst., Göttingen and Univ. of Freiburg, BRD 1972-1990
• Associate Professor, Univ. of Oslo 1990
• Professor of Biophysics and Vision Science, Univ. of Oslo 1993
• Professor of Biophysics and Vision Science, NTNU 1991 to present

Major grants and research projects

• Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities
• European Science Foundation
• Max Planck Gesellschaft
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• Schweizerische Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftliche Forschung
• Roche Science Foundadtion
• IBM Norway
• NSB Norway
• NATO Grants for Collaborative Research
• Thonning Owesen's Foundation
• Blindeforbundet (Norw. Association for the Blind)
• Thorstein Erbos Fund
• European Union

From 1968 to 1994

• Joint research projects in vision (psychophysics and electrophysiology) with groups from:
• Univ. of Basle, Switzerland (1974).
• Univ of Freiburg, BRD (1974-1980; B. Breitmeyer and L. Spillmann).
• Max Planck Inst. for biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, BRD (1981-1990, O.Creutzfeldt and B. Lee).
• Univ. of California, San Diego, USA (1973).
• Univ. of Chicago, USA.

From 1994 to present

• Joint research on Low vision with Tambartun Centre for Low Vision Rehabilitation (with P. Fosse) and Univ. of Oslo (J.H. Wold and T. Seim), Norway.

From 1998 to 2001

• Interdisciplinary Program at NTNU, ”Information coding and functional organisation of populations of nerve cells” Together with professors E. Moser and H. Mustaparta.

From 2000 to 2004

• Strategic University Program from Norwegian Research Council, ”Neural mechanisms of sensory functions and memory” (same collaborators as above). Includes one dr. student (I. Rudvin) and one master student (G. E. Nygård).

2002-2006

• Joint project with Brain Research Unit, University of Freiburg on ”Lateral interactions in vision”. Includes one German dr. student.

2002-2006

• EU Concerted Action together with research groups from universities of Tübingen, Manchester and Utrecht. Project title: ”Photoreceptor dynamics in age-related macular degeneration”.

Editor/Author

• From Pigment to Perception. Advances in Understanding Visual Processes. Plenum, 1991 (NATO ASI Series)
• Die Farbe (editorial board)
• Editor of Proceedings from 3 Scientific Conferences held in Norway
• Lys Syn Farge, 280 pages (Tapir, 1998)
• Light Vision Color, 460 pages (Wiley, & Sons, 2005)

Publications

• About 100 full scientific papers
• About 100 abstracts/short communications/scientific reports/conference contributions
• 3 books
• Several popular science articles