Edward H Adelson received the BA degree in physics and philosophy from Yale University, and the Ph.D. degree in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan. After a postdoctoral at New York University (NYU), he worked on human and computer vision at RCA Sarnoff Labs in Princeton, New Jersey. He is a professor of vision science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. He joined the MIT Media Lab in 1987, and moved to the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1995.

He is an OSA Fellow and recipient of the 1984 Adolph Lomb Medal “for his contributions to understanding in three different areas of physiological and visual optics, namely: temporal responses of the human visual system, color vision, and artificial vision.”