Roxanne Radpour
Biography
Dr. Roxanne Radpour (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Department of Art Conservation, with a joint appointment in UD's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is a faculty member for the Winterthur/UD Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), where she has built a year-long imaging and documentation course sequence focused on growing students’ skills and exposure to imaging techniques in conservation and conservation science. She also leads independent studies for undergraduate students in both ARTC and ECE focused on scientific imaging and conservation photography.
Dr. Radpour has founded and leads the Imaging Science Laboratory for Cultural Heritage (ISLA-CH), located in Evans Hall. Her research advances imaging and spectroscopic techniques and data workflows to study the materials of paintings and other decorated cultural heritage objects. Of particular focus are non-invasive, portable technologies for different modes of imaging spectroscopy (reflectance, luminescence, XRF) and infrared reflectography). She and her students also explore novel statistical analyses and machine learning approaches of hyperspectral data sets. Over her career, Dr. Radpour has studied various types of objects such as archaeological monuments, wall paintings, and polychrome sculptures, works on paper (e.g. illuminated manuscripts), textiles, and paintings (panel, canvas, etc.).
Prior to joining UD in 2023, Dr. Radpour was the Charles E. Culpeper Fellow in the Scientific Research Department at the National Gallery of Art (NGA), where she was a member of the Chemical Imaging Laboratory. Her research focused on the development and application of imaging spectroscopy and chemical sensing technologies, as well as 2D and 3D material mapping approaches for conservation science. She was also the senior Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Fellow in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's (The Met) Department of Scientific Research, where she introduced and applied imaging spectroscopy for the analysis of objects in The Met's collection as well as with the Network Initiative for Conservation Science program to support studies of collection materials in local New York institutions. In 2019, Dr. Radpour received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Archaeomaterials Research Group. She also holds MS degrees in Physics (Univ. Minnesota, Twin Cities) and Materials Science and Engineering (UCLA).
Selected Publications
Radpour, R., Kleynhans, T., Facini, M., Pozzi, F., Westerby, M., & Delaney, J. K. (2024). Advances in automated pigment mapping for 15th-century manuscript illuminations using 1-D convolutional neural networks and hyperspectral reflectance image cubes. Applied Sciences, 14(16), 6857.
Basso, E., McGeachy, A., Mieites Alonso, M. G., Pozzi, F., Radpour, R., & Katz, M. (2024). Seventeenth-Century Barniz de Pasto Objects from the Collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library: Materiality and Technology. Heritage, 7(5), 2620-2650.
Radpour, R., Delaney, J.K., and Kakoulli, I. “Acquisition of High Spectral Resolution Diffuse Reflectance Image Cubes (350–2500 nm) from Archaeological Wall Paintings and Other Immovable Heritage Using a Field-Deployable Spatial Scanning Reflectance Spectrometry Hyperspectral System” Sensors 22.5 (2022).
Radpour, R., Gates, G.A., Kakoulli, I, and Delaney, J.K. “Identification and mapping of ancient pigments in a Roman Egyptian funerary portrait by application of reflectance and luminescence imaging spectroscopy” Heritage Science. Vol. 10. No. 1. SpringerOpen (2022).
Radpour, R., Fischer, C., and Kakoulli, I. “A 3D modeling workflow to map ultraviolet-and visible-induced luminescent materials on ancient polychrome artifacts.” Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 23 (2021).
