STLD_112 pp1-31:TL 85 Spring 2005 23/07/2014 21:10 Page 16
Event
Vision impossible! Peter Phillipson introduces the background to a groundbreaking lecture on vision that the STLD attended in February. The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL), established in 1909, arranges several lighting lectures and events throughout the year, often with three or four speakers talking about a latest trend in lighting. But every two years, there is a formal lecture given by just one speaker in the traditional academic style and many of these are based on ‘white paper’ peer-reviewed papers or expert experience. When I first went to one, 20 years ago, I did not think I would run them one day, and I was honoured to be asked. I try to invite the STLD, ALD and students to these events if they are of relevance. I have always seen lighting as one thing, but unfortunately, the lighting industry is still fragmented into quite distinct parts. The lecture is named after two of the pioneers of the IES – the former name of the SLL – from the 1920s, and in 1949 it was announced in Nature that the Trotter Paterson Lecture would be run biannually. Its inaugural lecture was in 1951 and previous speakers have included the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir Lawrence Bragg. This year’s lecture took place at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. Fittingly, it was the first venue in London to be built with electric lighting.
Pictured: Colin Blakemore FRS FMedSci is professor of neuroscience and philosophy in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. He is a former chief executive of the British Medical Research Council. He helped establish the concept that the brain is ‘plastic’ and adaptive, allowing changes in organisation.
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Set & Light | Summer 2014
