Edward Howard Adelson (born 1952) is an American neuroscientist who is currently the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and an Elected Fellow of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

Education and career

Adelson attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and received bachelor's degrees in physics and philosophy in 1974. He then attended the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

for his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, graduating in 1979. He was a

postdoctoral fellow A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

from 1979 to 1981, after which he joined

RCA Laboratories RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company ...

as a staff scientist for five years. One of his most notable research outcomes is the Laplacian pyramid for visual image coding. Adelson has over 100 publications that have been cited more than 63,000 times on topics in human vision, machine vision, computer graphics, neuroscience, and computational photography .

Awards

During his time at RCA Laboratories, Adelson won the 1984

Adolph Lomb Medal The Adolph Lomb Medal, awarded by the Optical Society is a prize for young scientists (within 10 years of their highest degree) for their contributions to optics. It is named after Adolph Lomb, treasurer of the Optical Society of America from its fo ...

from the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

. He joined the faculty at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

in 1987, first at the Media Lab before moving to the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1994. In 1992, he received the Rank Prize in Opto-electronics, and in 2005 he received the

Longuet-Higgins Prize The Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition is an annual conference on computer vision and pattern recognition. Affiliations The conference was first held in 1983 in Washington, DC, organized by Takeo Kanade and Dana H. Ballard. Fr ...

from the

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

. In 2006, Adelson was elected a member of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. In 2010, he was elected as fellow of the

. In 2013, he received the Helmholtz Award from the

. In 2020, he received the Ken Nakayama Medal for Excellence in Vision Science. In 2022, Adelson received the

Kurt Koffka Medal The Kurt-Koffka Medal, Kurt Koffka Medal, Kurt Koffka Award, or Koffka Prize is an annual, international award bestowed by Giessen University's Department of Psychology for "advancing the fields of perception or developmental psychology to an ext ...

for "advancing the fields of

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...

to an extraordinary extent". Adelson is also a fellow of the

Society of Experimental Psychologists The Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists. It was founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 to be an ongoing workshop in which mem ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adelson, Edward 1952 births Living people American neuroscientists University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Yale College alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists MIT Media Lab people American vision scientists

Education and career

Awards

See also

References

External links