RPI Lighting Research Center to host 25th anniversary celebration

Dec. 18, 2012

Troy, NY--The Lighting Research Center RPI will celebrate 25 years of lighting research and eduction on March 20, 2013. The event will include a keynote, panel discussion, LRC tours and demonstrations, and a reception and dinner.

Conard Holton

Troy, NY--The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will celebrate 25 years of lighting research and eduction on March 20, 2013. The event will include a keynote, panel discussion, LRC tours and demonstrations, and a reception and dinner. The event will be open to the public and tickets are available at the LRC's website: www.lrc.rpi.edu.

LRC Director Mark Rea has written a book to commemorate the anniversary and dedicated to the notion that society undervalues light, largely because its benefits are not properly measured. The book will be released in January 2013 and available at the SPIE website. Rea says, “The mission is nothing less than to change lighting practice—-to bring value to lighting, and to define and measure benefits as well as costs.”

The LRC was established in 1988 by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and has since has built an international source for objective information on lighting technologies, applications, and the human response to light. LRC focus areas and recent news include:

- Research in light and health, particularly the effects of light on circadian rhythms, is directly improving the lives of children and adolescents, night-shift nurses, submariners, and people with Alzheimer’s disease
- The application of solid-state lighting, bridging the gap between development of new technology and the end product, such airplane interiors
- Improving roadway visibility systems, working to optimize the efficiency, safety, and appearance of fixed roadway lighting, lighting on vehicles, and traffic lights
- International projects including the development of the Regional Centre for Lighting in Sri Lanka and quality assurance testing for Africa
- Independent testing of lighting products: the LRC photometry lab is the only university lighting laboratory accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program.

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.