[visionlist] Lorrin Riggs

[Walt Makous]

Lorrin Riggs, who died on April 8, 2008, was a pioneer in visual 
physiology and psychophysics.   Early in his career he developed 
methods for recording the electroretinogram (ERG) using contact 
lenses that proved very fruitful in both clinical and scientific 
contexts.  Later he was one of the leaders in applying methods of 
electrical signal averaging to record cortical potentials evoked by 
visual stimuli.  This work brought attention to the significance of 
spatial and temporal transients in vision that was further revealed 
by his studies of eye movements.

He developed methods of recording fine fixational eye movements by 
reflecting light off mirrors embedded in contact lenses.  These 
measurements revealed a pattern of movements consisting of slow 
drifts, fine tremor and saccadic jumps.  By an ingenious optical 
system targets were stabilized on the retina by reflecting them off a 
mirror in a contact lens.   He found that in the absence of retinal 
movement targets tend to disappear, revealing the importance of 
spatial and temporal target variability.

Lorrin garnered many awards, including the Ives Medal and the Tillyer 
Award of the Optical Society of America, the Friedenwald Award of the 
Association for Research in Ophthalmology and Vision, an award for 
Distinguished Scientific Contribution from the American Psychological 
Association, and the Howard Crosby Warren Medal of the Society of 
Experimental Psychologists.  He was also a president of the Eastern 
Psychological Association, a member of the board of the American 
Academy for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National 
Academy of Science.

Perhaps Lorrin's greatest contribution is the students he trained. 
It was often observed at meetings on vision that a large number of 
the people giving papers were either his students or their academic 
descendents.  So a fitting tribute is to foliate the family tree of 
his scientific progeny.  To this purpose we have injected Lorrin's 
name and those of his known students into the online genealogy, 
Neurotree.

Neurotree is an open system (www.neurotree.org), described by a very 
useful FAQ.  A new user can quickly learn how to examine the tree, 
search for people, enter new people and add personal comments.


John Krauskopf
Walt Makous
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