Research

ENDOWMENTS: Endowments are large gifts to the university that fund activities in perpetuity based on annual returns from the invested principle. Endowments associated with MCSL include the Munsell Color Science Laboratory Endowment that created the laboratory, the Richard S. Hunter Professorship in Color Science, Appearance, and Technology, the Xerox Professorship in Color Science, the Macbeth-Engel Fellowship in Color Science, the Franc Grum Memorial Scholarship, and the Franc Grum Color Science Learning Center. We continue to seek new endowments for graduate student fellowships, including the opportunity to name the Color Science Building.

GIFTS: Research gifts are unrestricted donations that fund research in general topical areas. Examples include annual gifts from the Eastman Kodak Company in the 1990s to fund fundamental student research on the development and testing of color appearance models, a current annual gift from DuPont Automotive to fund second-year graduate research projects related to the color of materials, and gifts from individuals to help support graduate student projects.

GRANTS: Grants fund specific research topics and originate from industrial, governmental, and educational sources. Recent examples include a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (as well as the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Modern Art) to support work in museum imaging, a grant from Fuji Photo to study fundamental perceptual aspects of image quality perception and the reproduction of high-dynamic range images, and a Department of Central Intelligence Post-Doc grant through the National Geospatial-Imaging Agency to study the application of color appearance models to the visualization of spectral and high-dynamic-range data.

CONTRACTS: Contracts typically arise from industrial collaborations in which the sponsor has particular deliverables that are a required outcome of the research. These projects remain non-proprietary, but typically involve research staff, in addition to students, to assure timely delivery of results. Recent contracts have been undertaken with companies like Epson, Sony, Fuji-Xerox, and Geospatial Systems.

VISITING SCIENTISTS: Visiting scientists spend two years (typically) in MCSL studying and performing research. They are funded by their employer and also provide a research gift to the laboratory as part of the visiting scientist program to cover incidental costs associated with their research and help fund graduate students. Recent visitors have come from companies such as Fuji-Photo, Canon, Oce, Panasonic, and others.

More detailed information on the development and implementation of externally-funded research projects can be found in the MCSL Research Procedures document.