Joel Pokorny earned his undergraduate degree form Middlebury College in 1962. He went on to receive his doctorate in psychology in 1967 from Columbia University. Upon graduating, he joined the University of Chicago, where he is today Professor Emeritus. He met his wife and lifelong collaborator Vivianne Smith in graduate school. They share an office today.

He was elected a Fellow of OSA in 1984, and he received, with his wife, the 1990 Edgar D. Tillyer Award “for contributions to basic and applied vision research, particularly in the areas of cone fundamentals, defective color vision, and flicker.”