Professor Robert W.G.Hunt

Professor Hunt was awarded a B.Sc with first class honours, and an A.R.C.S., in physics (1940-1943), and a D.I.C. in technical optics (1946-47), all from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. He was also awarded a Ph.D (1953) and D.Sc (1968) from the University of London. He worked as an Experimental Officer at the Ministry of Supply on optical sighting devices for tanks (1943-46). He was a research scientist at the Kodak Research Laboratories, Harrow (1946-82), where he worked on factors affecting the quality of colour images, and devices for making reflection prints from both negative and positive images on film; he was finally Assistant Director of Research. Since 1982 he has worked as an independent colour consultant, and has taken a leading role in the development of colour appearance models. He was a Visiting Professor of Physiological Optics at the City University, London (1967-1998), and a Visiting Professor of Colour Science at the Colour & Imaging Institute at the University of Derby, England (1994-2004). He is now a Visiting professor of Colour Science at the Department of Colour Science at the University of Leeds (since 2004). He has been Chairman of the Colour Group of Great Britain (1961-63); Chairman of the Colorimetry Committee of the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage, CIE (1975-83); and President of the International Colour Association, AIC (1981-85). He has written over a hundred papers on colour vision, colour reproduction, and colour measurement, and two books 'The Reproduction of Colour' now in its sixth edition, and 'Measuring Colour' now in its third edition. His current research interests include modelling the human system of colour vision so as to be able to predict how colours will appear in different viewing conditions, and applying colour science to practical problems in industry and in the environment. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Royal Television Society, Honorary Fellow of the British Kinematography Sound and Television Society, Honorary Member of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, and Honorary Fellow of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. He is a member of the Royal Institution and has served as one of its Vice-Presidents (1985-87). He has been awarded the Newton Medal of the Colour Group (Great Britain) (1974), the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society (1984), the Judd-AIC Medal of the International Colour Association (1987), the Gold Medal of the Institute of Printing (1989), the Johann Gutenberg Prize of the Society for Information Display (2002), the Godlove Award of the Inter-Society Color Council (U.S.A.) (2007). and Honorary Fellowship of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (2009). For services to the field of colour science and to young people through Crusaders he was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in 2009.