Knut Nordby

Tribute to Knut Nordby

Knut Nordby, a founding member of COST 219, passed away April 19, 2005, after suffering a long and serious illness.

For more than a quarter of a century he was a highly respected authority within the European accessibility community. He was a founding member of ETSI Technical Committee for Human Factors and became its Chairman in 1996. He was a delegate to ITU-T Study as Rapporteur on 'Human Factors', and he participated in several CEN standards committees. He was elected into the HFT Permanent Steering Committee in May 1997, and became its Chairman in May 1999. With co-authors Per Helmersen and Adam Balfour, he was awarded the 1997 "John Karlin Award" at the 16th HFT in Oslo.

Born in Norway in 1942, Knut had an extraordinary life. During the war, his family had to flee the country and the infant Knut was carried over the border in a rucksack. He grew up in Sweden, were his father found employment with the telecom manufacturer today known as Ericsson. Knut was an achromat, being completely colourblind and highly sensitive to light as well. Well-meaning authorities sent him to a school for the blind. He ran away eight years old, causing a big scandal and was happily expelled. Later his father became a representative for Ericsson in South America, and Knut was enrolled in an english school in Venezuela, a country were he also experienced violent upheavals.

His family eventually moved back to Norway, where Knut studied at the University of Oslo, receiving a BS in Human Physiology (the Faculty of Medicine), an MA in Philosophy of Sciences (the Faculty of History and Philosophy) and a Magister Artium (the equivalent of a Ph.D.) in Psychology (Faculty of Social Sciences).

After graduating, Knut worked for the Norwegian Armed Forces as Military Psychologist, his responsibilities being development of aptitude tests and selection of personnel for various schools and training courses, especially the selection of fighter pilots. After being awarded a fellowship from the University of Oslo and receiving research grants from the Norwegian Research Council and the European Research Council (Twinning Grant), he worked for six years as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo. His main research was in achromatic vision, where he was himself an articulate "guinea pig"in an international network of researchers. Later on this combination triggered the interest of the New York based psychiatrist Oliver Sachs, who took Knut with him to an island in Micronesia, where the inhabitants have this special genetic trait. This trip resulted in a movie and a book: "The Island of the colour blind".

In 1985 Knut joined the Research Institute of the Directorate for Telecommunications in Norway (now Telenor R&D) as Research Psychologist. He worked on various projects in telemedicine, distance education, the development of a video-telephone and, not least, on the development of telecommunication equipment and services for disabled and older people. He became Senior Research Scientist with responsibility for international standardisation in human factors and usability. He was also teaching man-machine interaction and human factors at the University of Oslo.

His own physical challenges provided him with a unique vantage point for the design of solutions to the many obstacles that confront visually impaired persons. Fate would have it that it was a crippling disease (ALS) that killed him. He faced his situation with great courage, and was actively working to the last. His enthusiastic personality, encylopedic knowledge and empathy for the ordinary users of new technology will be deeply missed.