By Karen Kawawada
A longtime professor at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science has received a prestigious award at Academy 2024, the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry (AAO), held this year in Indianapolis.
Dr. Lyndon Jones, who is director of the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE), has been with the School since 1998. He is cross-appointed to the Waterloo departments of Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and is adjunct professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at McMaster University, Canada, and the School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of New South Wales, Australia.
The Carel C. Koch Memorial Medal Award is presented annually to a person who has made outstanding contributions to the enhancement and development of relationships between optometry and other professions.
“I’m honoured to receive an award that remembers one of the founding members of the Academy, someone who made many contributions to interprofessional relations and to disciplines such as medicine, physics, psychology and opticianry,” said Jones. “I’ve always believed bringing disciplines together is where creative problem solving begins, since none of us can be experts in everything.”
Jones is widely recognized as one of the world’s top contact lens experts. Not only has he published extensively, with over 550 articles in peer-reviewed and professional journals, he has given more than 1,000 lectures around the world. He is known in his research for interdisciplinary collaborations in areas such as novel contact lens materials, development of materials for ocular drug delivery, and dry eye disease.
Originally from Wales, Jones graduated as an optometrist from the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1985 and spent years in private practice before earning a PhD from Aston University in 1998. He was awarded an honorary DSc from Aston University in 2018.
Jones already has a long list of honours to his name. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, in which he is a Diplomate in Cornea and Contact Lenses. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE) and British Contact Lens Association (BCLA).
The AAO has previously conferred other prestigious awards on Jones, including the 2006 Michael G Harris Family Award for Excellence in Optometric Education, the 2013 Max Schapero Memorial Lecture Award and the 2014 Glenn Fry Lecture Award. Other awards of note include the 2019 AOCLE Lester Janoff Cornea & Contact Lens Memorial Award, the 2019 BCLA Medal and the 2018 IACLE Contact Lens Educator of the Year Award for the Americas.