Jonathan Phillips obtained his B.S. in chemistry and minor in music from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and his M.S. in color science from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. He worked with advisor Mark Fairchild on his M.S. project which was on evaluating visual perception of halftone inkjet dots and correlating that to a visual model, S-CIELAB, established by Brian Wandell's group at Stanford. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in color science with advisor James Ferwerda on topic of perception of High Dynamic Range imaging. 

He has worked at the Eastman Kodak Company since 1992 where he is a principal scientist, specializing in optimization of digital consumer photography. As a company spokesperson on consumer image quality, he has educated editors of publications such as PC Magazine, Popular Photography, and Kiplinger. He is a frequent speaker at technical conferences on the subjects of systems design, color science, and psychophysics. Mr. Phillips has worked as an analytical chemist in the Health and Environmental Labs, a systems engineer in the Research Labs on photographic film and magnetics, and a lead image scientist on inkjet and dye transfer printers, displays, digital cameras, and camera phones.   Currently, he is representing Kodak on international technical standards committees while pursuing his Ph.D. in color science at RIT.  Mr. Phillips holds a U.S. Patent on color gamut mapping technology for output devices.  His article, "A Survey of Environmental Conditions Relative to the Storage and Display of Photographs in Consumer Homes," was a feature article in the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology.

Jonathan Phillips began Suzuki violin studies in Rochester, New York at the age of six.  While in undergraduate studies at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Illinois, he began his pursuit of the viola.  Mr. Phillips has performed as Principal Violist with the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra and the Penfield Symphony Orchestra.  He has performed professionally on both violin and viola with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning, New York as well as on viola in the Western New York Chamber Orchestra in Fredonia, New York.  His teachers have included Nancy Hunt, Sungil Lee, Lee Joiner, Elizabeth Richey, and George Taylor.

He is involved in chamber music, playing with the Saelig Trio and the Ontario Ensemble as well as frequent evenings of reading through chamber works with close friends.  He has performed in the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival with musicians such as Linda Chesis, David Geber, and Mark Ptashne and has attended the Chamber Music Conference at Bennington College in Vermont.  After performing duets with Mr. Phillips, Stephen Clapp (Dean Emeritus of Juilliard) invited him to participate in a panel discussion, "Playing Outside the Music Box: Life as a Non-Career Musician," at the Credo Chamber Music Camp at Oberlin College. In order to promote the wonderful sonorities of multiple violas, he has given concerts with violists George Taylor and Phillip Ying.