Pioneers of Color Science

This book offers the reader a comprehensive overview of the historical development of color science, told through the stories of more than 90 of the most prominent figures in the field and their contributions. §This book comprises an extensive set of biographical essays about pioneering scientists in the field of color science, describing their most significant achievements and explaining how their findings influenced our understanding of color. Grouped in chapters by historical period, each chapter is prefaced with a short introduction which sets the essays in context and helps the reader to appreciate the background and the importance of the contributions made.§Beginning with classical Greece and the works of Plato and Aristotle, the book goes on to describe the advances made by Islamic scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham between the 10th and 15th Centuries and the contributions of Roger Bacon and Theodoric of Freiburg in the same period, before moving to the 16th and 17th Centuries and figures including Boyle, Descartes, Forsius and Newton.§The next chapter is devoted to 18th and 19th Centuries, with contributions discussing the lives and works of figures including Beer, von Goethe, Grassman, Helmholtz, von Kries, Lambert, Mach, Maxwell, Purijne, Runge, Young and many others. The largest chapter of the book focuses on the 1900s, and includes essays on Adams, Boynton, Crawford, Hardy, Land, Lippmann, MacAdam, Munsell, Ostwald and Wyszecki. §The book concludes with a section on contemporary figures in color science and their ongoing contributions to this dynamic field. §A useful reference for color scientists, science historians, artists and others, Pioneers of Color Science offers a fascinating insight into the development of color science and the nature of scientific advance.§