Areas of study

Students in the vision science graduate program at uWaterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science specialize in one of the following areas:

Students will work with one or more faculty supervisors in their chosen area(s).

In addition to this page, several of the faculty and research groups have their own websites: Research and lab groups.

Description of areas of study and faculty

Fundamental Biosciences

Examining the processes that form the basis of vision. Includes:

  • Ocular research (physiology, anatomy, mechanisms of disease)
  • Technology development (drug delivery systems / materials research, optical devices and instruments)
  • Systems engineering (new imaging instruments, AI, innovations in visual function and disease detection)

Faculty

Applied studies

Applying scientific discoveries made in the lab to the development of trials and studies. Includes:

  • Human clinical studies (myopia control, optical devices, amblyopia, med-tech)
  • Vision rehabilitation (low vision, amblyopia, traumatic brain injury / concussion)
  • Imaging mechanisms in human ocular disease (space-associated neuro syndrome, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma)
  • Knowledge translation, data science

Faculty

Societal impact

Transforming scientific results into new treatments and approaches to care, improving the health of the population. Includes:

  • Education / knowledge mobilization (public, optometric, interprofessional)
  • Quality of life (clinical care, service provision)
  • Equitable access to care (government policy, public health systems)
  • Teleoptometry / imaging / AI

Faculty

Faculty research interests

Please feel free to contact faculty directly for more information about their research, or the equipment available in their lab. Note that faculty do not accept a student until a formal application has been made.

Christian, Lisa, BSc (Queen's), OD (Illinois), FCOVD, FAAO
Associate Clinical Professor; Associate Director, Clinical Education

  • Healthcare education and communication
  • Interprofessional education and collaboration
  • Amblyopia
  • Binocular Vision
  • Pediatric vision care

 Choh, Vivian, BSc (Toronto), MSc (Toronto), PhD (Waterloo)
Associate Professor; Associate Director, Research

  • The optics, molecular structure and function of the crystalline lens during accommodation
  • Molecular and cellular changes mediating and following refractive error development and retinal ganglion cell death
  • Development of neuroprotective strategies following retinal ganglion cell death

Dalton, Kristine,  OD (Waterloo), MSc (Waterloo), PhD (Aston University), MCOptom, FAAO, FBCLA
Associate Professor

  • Clinical aspects of optometric practice, particularly those related to athletic performance and traumatic brain injury, including refractive error correction, binocular vision, vision therapy, performance-enhancement vision training, and multidisciplinary management of patient care.
  • Understanding the role of functional aspects of vision performance in relation to sports performance, traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, and Paralympic classification for athletes with vision impairment.

Furtado, Nadine, BSc (McGill), MSc (SUNY), OD (SUNY), FAAO
Associate Clinical Professor; Head, Ocular Disease & Imaging Service

  • Public Health - access to care and healthcare system efficiency
  • Telehealth - remote delivery of healthcare locally and globally
  • Health Informatics – use of AI and machine learning to optimize the diagnosis and management of ocular disease
  • Ocular Disease & Ophthalmic Imaging
  • Interprofessional Education and Collaboration

Hileeto, Denise, MD (Bulgaria), MSc (Western)
Clinical Associate Professor

  • Histopathologic evaluation and establishing of morphologic tissue characteristics in normal and pathological states of the eye and ocular adnexal tissue
  • Identification of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in ocular surface disease, myopia, and altered refractive states
  • Histopathologic evaluation of limbal stem cell deficiency and investigating the possibilities for ocular surface reconstruction through tissue substitutes
  • Evaluation of histological parameters and correlation of microscopically identified tissue characteristics with their imaging correlates using current diagnostic imaging techniques
  • New methodologies for digital analysis in diagnostic and prognostic histopathology using digitalized histology slides

 Hudson, Christopher, BSc (Hons), PhD (Aston University), MCOptom, PgCUT (University of Ulster), FAAO
Professor

  • The development of non-invasive psychophysical and objective techniques to improve the clinical monitoring of retinal and systemic disease and the evaluation of new techniques in a clinical setting
  • The relationship between early visual function loss and morphological retinal disturbance
  • Diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, age-related macular degeneration, primary open-angle glaucoma
  • Neurodegenerative disease and the eye; Alzheimer’s disease/mild cognitive impairment, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebrovascular disease, fonto-temporal degeneration, Parkinson’s disease.
  • Clinical psychophysics; automated perimetry, colour vision, short-wavelength pathway sensitivity, frequency-of-seeing, signal detection theory, cognitive function
  • Ocular imaging techniques; scanning laser, tomography, laser Doppler, retinal oximetry, retinal oxygen delivery, angiography, spectral domain optical coherence tomography, retinal morphology, retinal sub-layer segmentation
  • Ocular/retinal hemodynamics; blood flow, vascular reactivity, ocular perfusion pressure, blood gas perturbation, autoregulation

Hunter, Jennifer, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD (all Waterloo)
Associate Professor

  • Adaptive Optics
  • Mechanisms of light-induced retinal damage
  • Non-invasive fluorescence imaging techniques to study retinal function in healthy and diseased eyes

 Hutchings, Natalie, BSc (Hons), MCOptom, PhD (Aston University)
Associate Professor

  • Retinal imaging, psychophysical assessment of visual function
  • Statistical methods for clinical interpretation of psychophysical data, visual fields, continuing optometric education.

Jones, Deborah, BSc, FCOptom, FAAO
Clinical Professor

  • Myopia control
  • Pediatric vision
  • Eye care in Indigenous communities
  • Healthcare education and communication

 Jones, Lyndon W., BSc (Hons) (Wales), PhD (Aston University), DSc (Aston University), FCOptom (Wales), DipCLP, DipOrth, FAAO, FIACLE, FBCLA
Professor (Optometry, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics)

  • Contact lens material development and testing

  • Dry eye

  • Impact of material composition on tear film deposition

  • Impact of care systems on ocular comfort and in vivo wettability

  • Myopia control

  • Ocular drug delivery

  • Ocular response to daily and extended wear of contact lenses

  • Role of the tear film in contact lens wear

Kelly, Krista
Assistant Professor, MA and PhD (York University)

  • Effects of atypical visual experience on the developing brain
  • Ocular motor dysfunction in amblyopia and strabismus
  • Functional consequences of common pediatric eye conditions (amblyopia, strabismus, anisometropia, cataract) on reading and motor skills

Labreche, Tammy, BSc, OD (Waterloo)
Clinical Associate Professor, Director of the Centre for Sight Enhancement

  • Vision and fall prevention
  • Neuro-optometric rehabilitation
  • Low vision service delivery
  • Communication with those with communication impairments
  • Eye care in long term care facilities including low vision rehabilitation

 Lakshminarayanan, Vasudevan
Professor (Optometry, Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Systems Design Engineering)

  • Classical optics – aberration theory, optical systems, optical fibres, ophthalmic and visual optics, etc.
  • image processing  algorithms
  • AI/deep learning/machine learning for  ophthalmic disease diagnosis
  • Visual perception -   psychophysics, models
  • Quantum information and computing
  • Mathematical methods in optical science and engineering
  • History of Optics
  • Science policy

MacIver, Sarah, BSc, OD, FAAO
Clinical Associate Professor, Teaching Fellow

  • Clinical utility of imaging instruments in posterior segment disease
  • Autofluorescence imaging
  • Interprofessional patient management
  • Ocular inflammation
  • Ocular surface disease
  • Glaucoma
  • Ocular manifestations of systemic disease
  • Ocular disease
  • Interprofessional care

Murphy, Paul, BSc (Hons) (Cardiff), MBA (South Wales), PhD (Glasgow Caledonian), FCOptom, FAAO, FBCLA, FEAOO,
Professor

  • Anterior ocular surface including contact lens wear, tear film physiology, ocular surface temperature, corneal epithelium and corneal sensation
  • Instrumentation; development of new clinical and research instruments including evaporimeter, corneal aesthesiometer, ocular surface thermography
  • Bibliometrics; use of bibliometrics in research comparisons
  • Workforce studies including attitude of optometry students to studying optometry, and expectations/aspirations for future career

Ngo, William, OD (Waterloo), PhD (Waterloo)
Assistant Professor

  • Human clinical testing related to the diagnosis and treatment of dry eye disease and meibomian gland dysfunction.
  • Cellular physiology and their response to stress and damage.
  • Discovery of drugs and biologics for modulating inflammation.  

Prokopich, C. Lisa, OD (Waterloo), MSc (Waterloo)
Clinical Professor

  • Ocular surface disease
  • Glaucoma
  • Pharmaceutical therapies for ocular disease
  • Retinal disease

Thompson, Benjamin, BSc (Sussex), PhD (Sussex)
Professor

  • Human visual cortex development and plasticity
  • Amblyopia
  • Binocular vision
  • Functional MRI
  • Non-invasive brain stimulation
  • Ocular imaging and visual rehabilitation

Woo, Stanley, OD (Berkeley), MS (Houston), MBA (Rice), FAAO
Director, School of Optometry and Vision Science
*Note: Dr. Stan Woo will be on leave during the 2025-26 academic year.

  • Telehealth

  • Vision Rehabilitation