Centres and groups

Faculty laboratory and research group pages for Vision Science and Optometry at the University of Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science.

Dr. Vivian Choh's lab

  • Optics and function of crystalline lens during accommodation
  • Dynamics of cellular changes to the lens during accommodation
  • Molecular and cellular factors mediating refractive error development
  • Molecular and cellular factors mediating retinal ganglion cell death
  • Development of neuroprotective strategies following retinal ganglion cell death

Dr. Kristine Dalton's lab

Vision & Motor Performance Lab

  • Sports related concussion and vision rehabilitation
  • Paralympic classification for athletes with vision impairment
  • Understanding how vision is involved in sports performance
  • Development of a novel test of vision function to assess vision for sports performance
  • Clinical aspects of optometric practices including vision training to enhance athletic performance and vision rehabilitation

Dr. Natalie Hutching's lab

  • Imaging
  • Optics
  • Aberrations
  • Spectacle lens design

Dr. Elizabeth Irving's lab

  • Telehealth
  • Vision Rehabilitation
  • Neuroscience
  • Ocular Biology
  • Optical Devices
  • Vision Services
  • Epidemiology and Digital Health
  • Bionanotechnolgy and Biosensors

Dr. Lyndon Jones

Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE)

  • Clinical trial design
  • Contact lens performance
  • Ocular biomaterials
  • Clinical Imaging
  • Ocular Biology
  • Optical Devices
  • Vision Services
  • Technology and Optics
  • Smart Materials
  • Biomaterials, Polymers and Bioplastics
  • Thernostic Materials
  • Bionanotechnology and Biosensors
  • Next Generation Energy Systems
  • Nanomaterials
  • Smart and Functional Materials
  • Drug Discovery, Design and Delivery

Dr. Krista Kelly's lab

Vision and Neurodevelopment Laboratory

  • 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

Dr. Paul Murphy's lab

Murphy Laboratory for Experimental Optometry

  • Ocular surface sensation
  • Tear film dynamics and dry eye
  • Ocular surface shape
  • Contact lens wear complications
  • Optometric instrumentation

Dr. Trefford Simpson's lab

Soft Metrology Lab

  • Soft Metrology, psychophysical measurement of ocular surface pain and thermal sensing, scaling symptoms and visual function, ocular surface imaging (particularly OCT), ocular surface structure and function, binocular vision
  • Clinical Imaging
  • Vision Rehabilitation
  • Ocular Biology
  • Vision Services

Dr. Ben Thompson's lab

The Human Visual Neuroscience (HVN) lab

  • Development and plasticity of the human visual cortex. Techniques used within the lab include:
    • Psychophysics, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
    • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
    • Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
    • Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
    • Electroencephalography (EEG)

Dr . Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan's lab

Theoretical and Experimental Epistemology Laboratory (TEEL)

  • This multi-disciplinary laboratory works on various areas of interest:
    • vision science
    • retinal image processing and machine learning
    • optical physics and applied optics
    • history of science