A total of $70,000 for lighting education grants and awards was presented by The Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education at its annual luncheon held at Lightfair International 2012 in Las Vegas on May 9. Named in honor of the late lighting designer and educator, James L. Nuckolls, The Nuckolls Fund has given a total of $775,000 to advance lighting education in North America since its inception in 1989.
The Nuckolls Fund annually solicits proposals for innovative educational ideas that will advance the understanding of light in architecture. This year, two $20,000 Nuckolls Fund grants, two $10,000 Edison Price Fellowship Grants, and two $5,000 student awards were presented to recipients by Jeffrey A. Milham, president of The Nuckolls Fund.
- $20,000 Nuckolls Fund Grant to Kalia Toro-Sepuveda, Assistant Professor, International School of Design (ISD), Interior Design Program,Universidad del Turabo, Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Currently, Puerto Ricohas no academic institution with a lighting design program or an NCQLP certification preparation program. The Grant will be used to develop and expand the ISD’s existing lighting courses, integration with the Interior Design Program, and the NCQLP lighting certification examination.
- $20,000 Nuckolls Fund Grant to Karen Clarke, Program Co-director of Interior Design, New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University, Boston, and Anna Gitelman, Assistant Professor, Suffolk University. A Light and Technology Course will be created for the University’s new MFA program in its School of Art & Design. The program will explore new lighting technologies coming on to the market, current lighting research, and opportunities to interact with designers, scientists, and artists.
- $10,000 Edison Price Fellowship Grant to Amanda J. Gale, Assistant Professor, Department of Consumer Affairs, College of Human Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama. Prof. Gale will join Gary Steffy Lighting Design, Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a summer intern to gain further understanding of lighting and lighting design to apply to her new in-class studio activities and course projects.
- $10,000 Edison Price Fellowship Grant to Erin Speck, Assistant Professor, Interior Design, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Prof. Speck will apply her grant to develop a web-based program on controls to be made available to all interior design lighting instructors, in collaboration with the Lutron Experience Center in Washington, D.C.
- $5,000 Jonas Bellovin Scholar Achievement Award to Sean Zurko, Texas Christian University, where he is combining a major in Interior Design with a minor in Lighting for Visual Presentation.
- $5,000 Jules Horton International Student Achievement Award to Anastasiya Smurygina, a master’s degree candidate in the Building Systems Program with an emphasis on lighting at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
The luncheon’s guest speaker was Jean Sundin, founder and principal of the Office for Visual Interaction in New York City and the Director for Education for the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA). She is the chairperson for PLDA’s “Architectural Lighting Fundamentals” committee, an initiative to establish benchmarks of knowledge for lighting education internationally. Ms. Sundin noted that the lighting education community is more global than ever before. She highlighted key international developments including the introduction of a global lighting research database, universal lighting design syllabus, and the expansion of established lighting degree programs.
Milham concluded the luncheon ceremonies by thanking recent major contributors for their continued support of The Nuckolls Fund. These donors included the Jonas Bellovin Memorial Foundation, B-K Lighting and TEKA Illumination, the Designers Lighting Forum of New York, Enterprise Lighting Sales, and the New York City Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society.
Proposals for the 2013 Nuckolls Fund grants are due on February 8, 2013. For further details, visit www.nuckollsfund.org to download current grant RFPs as well as contribution forms in order to make a donation to the Fund.