Hi alumni, friends and colleagues,
It’s timely to be checking-in with our alumni as we wrap up our Winter term here at UWOVS – we have so many exciting updates to share!
We are finally together in person, welcoming everyone – students, faculty, and staff - back to campus at the end of February. It certainly has been reinvigorating to have our community back together again after a challenging two years. For recent grads, we're excited about the University's announcement that they'll be welcoming back the Classes of 2020 and 2021 in June for an in-person ceremony. The School is working on our own celebration for these grads on Saturday, June 11 - stay tuned for more details in your inbox shortly!
We’re now closer than ever to breaking ground on the Waterloo Eye Institute (WEI), tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2022! The profession has continued to show us so much support for this critical project. We’re grateful to be able to highlight in this e-newsletter the Alberta Association of Optometrists’ significant investment in the WEI, supporting initiatives that advance the profession to ensure Canadian ODs can be trained at the highest scope of practice.
On the continuing education front, UWOVS was also thrilled to have launched our first offering of an Advanced Procedures Certificate program in late March, now available to all Canadian optometrists looking to enhance their skills in lasers and minor procedures. In partnership with the New Brunswick Association of Optometrists, the School also hosted a certification course in glaucoma, oral TPA and lab testing in late February to great success.
Our research programs continue to thrive as we forge collaborative partnerships across campus and abroad. In October, Waterloo partnered with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to launch the Centre for Eye and Vision Research (CEVR), the first international research hub for vision science. Led by UWOVS’ Professor Ben Thompson, CEVR is taking on some of vision science’s most pressing challenges through five strategic research programs aimed to generate technologies to prevent vision loss and preserve healthy vision.
The year 2021 culminated with the news that UWOVS had been ranked globally amongst the top 5 Optometry Schools in research impact – a key metric that has helped continue to make our case for why we’re best positioned to build Canada’s premier eye and vision care centre. In this e-newsletter, we share with you two stories highlighting the cutting-edge research coming out of Waterloo – including the work that’s taking place under CEVR’s ocular drug delivery program, and a recent UWOVS study that answers why making time for regular exercise can make your eyes feel better.
In December, we said “see you soon” to Dr. Kenneth Hadley, who has retired from teaching after forty years on campus. While he’s still engaged in helping our first- and second-year students twice a week in pre-clinic, we miss his daily presence in our hallways.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Association meetings across the country this year. Our first stop is the OAO’s symposium on April 1. If you’re in Ontario, we invite you to register for our OAO reception and re-connect with your alma mater!
Best wishes,
Dr. Stanley Woo, OD, MS, MBA, FAAO
Director
