• Killian Duay, a doctoral student, has received the 2025 JOSA A Emerging Researcher Best Paper Prize for his paper on color constancy, published last year in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A). This prize is awarded to the most outstanding paper published in JOSA A in 2025 by an early-career researcher, based on its scientific significance, research quality, and clarity of presentation. Killian’s study clearly demonstrated that the wide field of view provided by virtual reality plays an important role in enabling stable color perception. The paper was highly praised for the precision of its experimental design and analysis. This is a remarkable achievement and will undoubtedly serve as great encouragement for his future research. Congratulations, Killian!

Award announcement:

• • https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAA.609144

Award-winning paper:

• • Killian Duay and Takehiro Nagai: Impact of field of view on color constancy in virtual reality, Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 42(5), B199–B213, 2025.

• On June 20 and 21, M2 students Ishiguro-kun and Miura-san, along with A/Prof Nagai, presented their work at the Annual Meeting of the Color Science Association of Japan, held at Ritsumeikan University’s Osaka Ibaraki Campus. Among these presentations, Ishiguro-kun received the Presentation Encouragement Award. Miura-san also gave an excellent presentation. Congratulations to both of them for their hard work! In addition, a paper by Son-san, who completed his doctoral program last academic year, received the Paper Award from the Color Science Association of Japan at the conference. Congratulations to both award recipients!

• A paper by Son-san, who completed his doctoral program last academic year, has been published in Lighting Research & Technology. The study examined how visual performance is affected after a sudden decrease in background luminance. Specifically, it showed that response times for target detection become longer after such a decrease, and that this effect is comparable for both luminance-defined and color-defined targets. These findings provide important insight into basic visual functions under conditions in which ambient illumination changes abruptly.

  • Minwoo Son, Takehiro Nagai: Comparison of simple reaction times across colour and luminance conditions under an abrupt decrease in background luminance. Lighting Research & Technology, 14771535261442940, 2026. (https://doi.org/10.1177/14771535261442940)

• From May 15 to 20, Ph.D. students Nakajima-kun, Hanada-kun, and A/Prof Nagai presented their work at the Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting, held in Florida, USA. Although the results had already been summarized before the meeting, the conference provided a valuable opportunity to meet new colleagues and gain further experience presenting research internationally. It was also refreshing to experience the lively atmosphere characteristic of academic conferences in the United States. We were also able to do a little sightseeing in Florida for the first time in a while, which made the trip a good opportunity to get back into the rhythm of international conferences.

  • Kenta Nakajima & Takehiro Nagai: The impact of temporal attitudes on physical and affective material impressions.

  • Ikuto Hanada & Takehiro Nagai: The possible role of real-world color distribution rarity in aesthetic preference for abstract paintings: A machine-learning approach.

  • Takehiro Nagai, Ruka Watanabe, & Juno Kim: Material perceptual space for translucent objects: a comparison between australian and japanese observers.