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2025

Five people view a never-before-seen color called ‘olo’

From Popular Science

The rainbow may be due for an update. A new, high-tech method for displaying color has allowed five test subjects to see a shade beyond the standard human range. The research, published April 18 in the journal Science Advances, is proof-of-concept for a technique that could allow neuroscientists to probe previously un-answerable questions about visual perception. In time, it might even help color blind people experience the full color spectrum, and enable regularly-sighted people to differentiate between hundreds, thousands, or millions of previously undetectable hues. (With commentary in Popular Science from our own Sara Patterson!)

2024

Kosha Dholakia receives travel award group photo

Kosha Dholakia receives travel award from AAI

Congratulations to Kosha Dholakia, recipient of the Trainee Award from the American Association of Immunologists/NYIC based on the top 10 abstracts to the Upstate New York Immunology Conference! (Kosha is second from the right, bottom row)

Soumaya BelHadj and Andrea Campbell holding up their award certificates at the Neuroscience retreat.

ARIA members win awards at the Neuroscience Graduate Program retreat

Congratulations to ARIA members Soumaya BelHadj and Andrea Campbell who won the best postdoctoral and best graduate student poster awards at the annual Neuroscience Graduate Program retreat at the Memorial Art Gallery.

Close-up of a Black person's eye with a multicolored light falling on it to illustrate how retinal ganglion cells function.

COLOR (PERCEPTION) THEORY: University of Rochester scientists have identified elusive retinal ganglion cells (RCGs) in the eye’s fovea that could explain how humans see red, green, blue, and yellow. (Getty Images photo)

Are these newly found rare cells a missing link in color perception?

Scientists have long wondered how the eye’s three cone photoreceptor types work together to allow humans to perceive color. In a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers at the University of Rochester used adaptive optics to identify rare retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that could help fill in the gaps in existing theories of color perception.

The retina has three types of cones to detect color that are sensitive to either short, medium, or long wavelengths of light. Retinal ganglion cells transmit input from these cones to the central nervous system.

2023

Congrats to David Williams, co-recipient of the 2024 Rank Prize in Optoelectronics

Congratulations to the four winners of the 2024 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics, "For the development of instruments that use adaptive optics technologies to capture high-resolution images of the living human retina." The recipients are Dr. Junzhong Liang, Professor Donald T. Miller, Professor Austin Roorda, & Professor David R. Williams.

The 2024 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics is awarded to four internationally leading scientists for the development of instruments that use adaptive optics technologies to capture high-resolution images of the living human retina. Their pioneering research has generated new fundamental insights into the structure and function of the human eye in both health and disease as well as new clinical interventions to remedy sight loss from common disorders.

The Prize will be formally awarded at an event in London on 1 July 2024.

Julie Bentley elected into SPIE presidential chain

Professor Julie Bentley ’90, ’96 (PhD) of the Institute of Optics has been elected to serve as the 2024 vice president of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. With her election, Bentley joins the SPIE presidential chain. She will serve as president-elect in 2025, and as the society’s president in 2026.

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