News

Dr. William Ngo has received an NSERC Discovery Grant to help enable his fundamental research on better understanding cellular aging at the front of the eye, how aging is linked to inflammation in the eye, and using bioinformatics techniques with the aim of discovering novel compounds that might modulate aging and inflammation and thus prevent dry eye disease.

The School collaborated with the Churchill Health Centre (CHC), the Manitoba Association of Optometrists and an anonymous donor to set up a state-of-the-art optometry lane at the CHC. Crucially, the equipment will remain in northern Manitoba to make it easier for optometrists to serve northern and remote communities, while the teleoptometry capabilities of the new equipment will enable follow-up care between visits.

As the end of the year approaches, Dr. Stan Woo looks back and celebrates the School of Optometry and Vision Science’s achievements, including on Giving Tuesday. He also highlights recognition for students as well as for researchers Drs. William Ngo and Lyndon Jones. He then looks forward to the year ahead with an invitation to Alumni Weekend and highlights a new feature – Class Notes.

In this new section of the Insight alumni newsletter, we invite you to share your personal updates with other Optometry & Vision Science alumni, up to a maximum of 100 words, with an optional photo. To start us off, we have gathered publicly available information about our alumni, but for next time, we look forward to hearing about your weddings, babies, retirements, achievements, milestones and anything else you’d like to share.

We hope you’ll be able to join us for this annual event, presented in collaboration with the Ontario Association of Optometrists. It will feature lectures by the 2023 Bobier and Woodruff Distinguished Lecture award honourees, Dr. Trefford Simpson and Dr. Chi-ho To. This year’s event theme is therapeutic prescribing agents. 

Josh Smith (OD ’13) went from being worried he'd be the oldest student at the School of Optometry & Vision Science to being class president and winning the Coreal Cup. Catch up with what's he's been doing in the decade since as an Eastern Ontario-based clinician, leader, volunteer and donor.

With a background in physics and vision science, Dr. Jennifer Hunter has developed a non-invasive way of looking at cell layers in the retina to measure biomarkers of disease. Her goal is to apply her research to patients in the early stages of disease and prevent vision loss.

It felt at first like a moonshot, but after years of planning, two leadership gifts are helping us make the Waterloo Eye Institute a reality. Contributions totaling $8.5 million from vision care providers FYidoctors and IRIS have helped us raise enough funds to put shovels in the ground in 2024.

With plenty going on at the start of a new academic year, Director Stan Woo shares his thoughts on developments for the Waterloo Eye Institute, research and continuing education highlights, and how you can help the School of Optometry & Vision Science pull off a hat trick on Giving Tuesday 2023.

Canada’s student chapter of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) have cautiously begun organizing eye care clinics following the pandemic, and there are exciting new directions in the works as they seek to provide more sustainable support to remote communities around the world.