The board of directors of the Richard Kelly Grant, established by the New York City Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IESNYC) in 1980, recently announced Jessica Collier and Tony Esposito as recipients of the 2019 grant. The grant recognizes creative thought and activity in the use of light and awards cash prizes to help support the recipients' continued education or research. It honors the late Richard Kelly for his contributions to the lighting design profession, and today, anyone 35 years or under and studying or working in the art and/or science of illumination in the United States, Canada, or Mexico can apply.
Collier is currently working at Pacific Northwest Labs in Portland, Ore., where she serves as an associate lighting research engineer. She received a grant for her work examining the relationship between objective color metrics and subjective color preferences. In 2018, she earned a master's degree in lighting design from Parsons School of Design, The New School. Her thesis title was “The Intersection of Color Metrics and Qualities Guided by Perception,” for which she received an IESNYC thesis award.
Esposito, who works at Lighting Research Solutions, received a grant for his scholarly work on color discrimination, defining the limitations of current metrics and developing a computational tool to aid in the establishment of accurate predictors for applied lighting. Currently, he is the head research scientist at Lighting Research Solutions LLC in Somerville, Mass., a company he founded. He earned his doctorate in 2016 from Penn State University in architectural engineering.
“This year we had so many over-qualified applicants, but Tony and Jessica’s work and contributions to the industry were admired by every member of the jury,” says Caleb McKenzie, co-chair of the Richard Kelly Grant.
To be considered, applicants must submit materials via mail with a summary of their project, personal resume, letters of recommendation, and intended use of the monetary award. The grant committee will consider works that use light in innovative ways to help solve or better understand a problem in the areas of architecture, theater, health, and more. Information on next year's application for the Richard Kelly Grant is not yet available.