Herman Bouma (born 15 March 1934) is a Dutch vision researcher and gerontechnologist. He is considered to be one of the founders of the field of gerontechnology. He spent the majority of his career at the Institute of Perception Research, serving as its director from the mid-1970s until 1994. He subsequently led the Institute for Gerontechnology until 1999. A perceptual law, based on a publication of his in 1970 is named ''Bouma's Law'' in his honour.

Career

Bouma was born in

Harderwijk Harderwijk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city of the Netherlands. It is served by the Harderwijk railway station. Its population centres are Harderwijk and Hierden. Harderwijk is on the western boundary of the Veluwe. The south ...

on 15 March 1934. He obtained a degree in physics from

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

and also partially studied medicine there. In 1959 Bouma started working for the Institute of Perception Research (Dutch:''Instituut voor Perceptie Onderzoek'', IPO), an institute of

Philips Research The Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (English translation: ''Philips Physics Laboratory'') or NatLab was the Dutch section of the Philips research department, which did research for the product divisions of that company. Originally located in the ...

and the

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc an ...

. In 1965 he obtained his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology under

Jan Frederik Schouten Jan Frederik Schouten (29 May 1910 – 12 August 1980) was a Dutch physicist, and Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, known for his contributions to biophysics. H. BoumaLevensbericht J.F. Schouten in: ''Jaarboek, 1980'', Amsterda ...

with a thesis titled: "Receptive systems mediating certain light reactions of the pupil of the human eye". In 1968 Bouma became teamleader of visual research at the IPO. In 1975 or 1978 he became director of the IPO and served until 1994. After this position he was director of the Institute for Gerontechnology at Eindhoven University of Technology from 1994 to 1999. He also continued as a part-time professor at the university. On his retirement the Herman Bouma Fund for Gerontechnology was set up.

Research

Bouma's research on perception has focused on

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the ...

. He specialized in reading processes and visual searching and also conducted work on dyslexia. In a famous paper in 1970 he laid the foundation to what is now called ''Bouma's Law''. Bouma further laid groundwork on the spectral dependency of the human pupillary response. His later work led to applications in the field of reading from displays. In 1990 Bouma started working in the field of gerontechnology. Together with Jan Graafmans and Tony Brouwers, Bouma he has been called one of the inventors of the discipline of gerontechnology by J.E.M.H. van Bronswijk. Bouma devoted half of his output in journals to gerontechnology. Bouma was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. The next year he was named a Knight in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouma, Herman 1934 births Living people Eindhoven University of Technology alumni Academic staff of the Eindhoven University of Technology Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Harderwijk Utrecht University alumni