Rigmor C. Baraas studied Optometry and Vision Science at University of Manchester, England. She graduated in 1994, and she was subsequently appointed Lecturer in the Department of Optometry at Buskerud University College, Kongsberg (Norway). She received a PhD fellowship in 1998, and returned to Manchester to undertake postgraduate research in the Vision Science Laboratory with Prof. J. J. Kulikowski. She obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester in 2002. Then, she moved to the Visual and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory and undertook 3-years of postdoctoral research with Professor D. H. Foster. She returned to Buskerud University College in spring 2005 as Associate Professor of Visual Sciences in the Department of Optometry and Visual Sciences. She was promoted to full professor in spring 2012.
Baraas was featured as Visionary of the Quarter on the European Gateway for Vision Research for the first quarter of 2013. She is a member of NOF, OSA, ICVS and ARVO. She has been the organizer of the 21st Symposium of the International Colour Vision Society and she is an elected director of the ICVS Board. Baraas is also an elected member of the Visual Psychophysics (VI) section of the ARVO Annual Meeting Program Committee. She is currently Editor-in-chief for Scandinavian Journal of Optometry and Visual Sciences and she is a Feature Editor for a JOSA A feature issue on Color Vision.
She organizes the annual Kongsberg Vision Meeting together with Professor G. Einevoll. Baraas is currently the prodean for research of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the director of National Centre for Optics, Vision and Eye Care. Her research interests are related to the human visual system, in particular visual optics and how information about colour and luminance are processed as the signals are transmitted from the eye to the brain.
