Founder and Scientific Director of the Perspective Research Centre
Dr Alan Radley FRSA is a physicist, author, inventor and visual-technology researcher whose work connects optics, astronomy, imaging systems, visual perception and the interdisciplinary study of perspective.
He holds a PhD in Physics from University College London, where he later worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and taught physics and astronomy at the University of London Observatory.
Science, Optics and Visual Technology
Radley has worked on optical and visual systems involving cameras, telescopes, spectrographs, three-dimensional displays and technologies designed to extend or enhance human vision.
His research has included work connected with NASA and the European Space Agency, together with inventions and patents including the Hologram Mirror.
Publications
Alongside his scientific and technical work, Radley has written and edited books on computing, smart technologies, cybersecurity and perspective.
His earlier publications include Self As Computer, The Science of Smart Things and The Science of Cybersecurity, which was shortlisted for the National Cyber Security Book Awards in 2022.
Perspective Research
For more than three decades, Radley has conducted sustained research into visual, optical and technical perspective.
This work has developed into The Art and Science of Perspective, a multi-volume series examining perspective across art, science, technology, vision, image-making and spatial representation. Its first volumes are:
- The Past, Present and Future of Visual and Optical Perspective;
- Dictionary of Perspective;
- the forthcoming Natural and Visual Perspective.
Perspective Category Theory
Radley’s current research centres on Perspective Category Theory, a framework for classifying and relating the many categories, classes, types, forms, processes and applications of perspective.
Through the Perspective Research Centre, he seeks to help establish perspective science as a coherent interdisciplinary field of visual knowledge connecting the arts, sciences, humanities, design disciplines and modern visual technologies.