Rensselaer Professor Mariana Figueiro, Light and Health Program Director at the Lighting Research Center, will be a keynote speaker at Light Symposium 2015, March 20 in Stockholm, Sweden.

There will be two keynote speakers at the event, Figueiro and Satchin Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Figueiro and Panda were featured together last year in the May/June cover story of The Economist: Intelligent Life magazine as the two visionary leaders who are pushing forward the field of light and health today.

Light Symposium 2015 will be part of and contribute to the International Year of Light, an initiative of a large consortium of scientific bodies together with UNESCO to raise awareness of the potential of light and light-based technologies to provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. The focus of Light Symposium 2015 is lighting design for future healthy architecture.

Recognizing the impact of light on the individual and on a global scale, the United Nations has proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light, citing that "light plays a vital role in our daily lives", "it has revolutionized medicine", and "light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health."
 
 
About the Lighting Research Center
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the world's leading center for lighting research and education. Established in 1988 by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the LRC has been pioneering research in energy and the environment, light and health, transportation lighting and safety, and solid-state lighting for more than 25 years.
In 1990, the LRC became the first university research center to offer graduate degrees in lighting and today the LRC offers both a M.S. in lighting as well as a Ph.D. to educate future leaders in lighting. Internationally recognized as the preeminent source for objective information on all aspects of lighting technology and application, LRC researchers conduct independent, third-party testing of lighting products in the LRC's state of the art photometric laboratories, the only university lighting laboratories accredited by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP Lab Code: 200480-0). LRC researchers are continuously working to develop new and better ways to measure the value of light and lighting systems, such as the effect of light on human health, and the effect of light on plant physiology.
The LRC believes that by accurately matching the lighting technology and application to the needs of the end user, it is possible to design lighting that benefits both society and the environment.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.