William David Wright

William David Wright (1906–1997) was an English physicist who specialised in colour vision.^[1] He was known for his contribution to measuring the colours of the spectrum by adding different beams of red, green and blue lights together.^[2] This study together with the similar study conducted by John Guild forms the basis of the international standard for colour measurement.^[3] The method is still in universal use today.^[1]

William David Wright
Born	6 July 1906 England
Died	4 June 1997(1997-06-04) (aged 90) England
Alma mater	Imperial College London (BSc, PhD)
Spouse	Dorothy Hudson (1932)
Children	2 (1 deceased)
Awards	C.E.K. Mees Medal (1975)
Scientific career
Fields	Colourimetry Optics

Biography

Wright earned his BSc in 1928 and his PhD in 1930 from Imperial College London.^[4]

Wright was born on 6 July 6, 1906 in England and died on 4 June 4 1997 in England. He married Dorothy Hudson in 1932. They had 2 children. Hudson passed in 1990.^[1]

Awards

• C.E.K. Mees Medal (1975)

Reference

1. "W.D. Wright Obituary". The Colour Group (GB). Retrieved 3 January 2025.
2. Wright, William David (1928). "A re-determination of the trichromatic coefficients of the spectral colors". Transactions of the Optical Society. 30 (4): 141–164. doi:10.1088/1475-4878/30/4/301.
3. Guild, J. (1932). "The colorimetric properties of the spectrum". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical or Physical Character. 230 (681–693): 149–187. Bibcode:1932RSPTA.230..149G. doi:10.1098/rsta.1932.0005. JSTOR 91229. The trichromatic coefficients for [Wright's] ten observers agreed so closely with those of the seven observers examined at the National Physical Laboratory as to indicate that both groups must give results approximating more closely to 'normal' than might have been expected from the size of either group
4. "William David Wright | Optica". Optica. Retrieved 4 January 2025.