Centre for Eye and Vision Research
The first international research hub for vision science is a partnership between the University of Waterloo and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This joint collaboration is located in Hong Kong's Science and Technology Park, but membership includes 20 Waterloo Science faculty members in the research areas of optometry and vision science, physics, chemistry, biology, and pharmacy. CEVR is led by Waterloo’s professor Ben Thompson as CEO and Scientific Director. The CEVR research will address five key areas of eye health: myopia and eye growth, ocular drug discovery and delivery, vision enhancement, tear film and ocular surface, and advanced optometric technology.
Fundamental Research
As a liquid crystal researcher, Dean Lemieux explained that his research, which are the basis for all LCD screens (liquid crystal displays) in phones, computers, tvs, etc. were actually discovered over 100 years ago by a botanist looking for the structure of cholesterol! From this discovery, it took decades of fundamental research before commercial applications were envisioned.
It's important to support researchers who work in areas that may not be interesting from a commercial point of view, but it is critical to support basic fundamental research. "You cannot plan discoveries," says Dean Lemieux. "Often, transformational discoveries create new fields."
Teaching Initiatives in the Faculty
As researchers, one of the primary roles is to train the future generation of researchers, and to create a passion amongst all students. The teaching of our faculty members makes a significant difference in our students, and in some cases, can inspire them to change the course of their careers. That's why when he started as Dean, Bob Lemieux decided to make a strategic investment of half a million dollars into the Dean's Undergraduate Teaching Initiative, which allowed instructors to develop new evidence based teaching methods and tools that focus on active learning, blended learning, and developing virtual reality instruments to teach.
As the pandemic hit, this investment from five years ago has paid off, as the methods that our faculty members developed have been used during the pivot to remote learning.
Beyond the Bulletin is a weekly podcast with hosts Brandon Sweet and Pamela Smyth that highlights news, events and commentary from the Daily Bulletin, the University of Waterloo’s internal newsletter. The podcast also features a brief look ahead as well as an interview on a subject of interest to the University community.
Listen to Episode 108 (8:30 to 36:44) for the full interview.