David MacAdam

Dr. David Lewis MacAdam (July 1, 1910 – March 9, 1998) was an American physicist and color scientist who made important contributions to color science and technology in the fields of colorimetry, color discrimination, color photography and television, and color order.(1)

MacAdam grew up in Upper Darby outside of Philadelphia, graduating from Upper Darby High School in 1928, attended Lehigh University, and in 1936 received a PhD in physics from MIT. Under Prof. Arthur C. Hardy, he originated the first course in color measurement and assisted Hardy in the preparation of “Handbook of Colorimetry,” published in 1936.

Upon graduation MacAdam joined the Research Laboratories of the Eastman Kodak company in Rochester, NY, from where he retired as a Senior Research Associate in 1975. Subsequently, he was named Adjunct Professor at the University of Rochester, Institute of Optics where he remained active until 1995. At Eastman Kodak, among many other things, he helped to establish the theoretical basis for color photography, including color masking as compensation for unwanted dye layer absorptions. (2)

Optimal object color limits: While still studying, MacAdam published in 1935 two papers on the theory of optimal object colors in which he showed the results of his calculations of the optimal object color solid raised over the CIE chromaticity diagram, using the newly established CIE standard observer and illuminant C and A data from 1932. (3, 4)

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