Farewell
With great sadness we say farewell to Soheil Doustkouhi, who has been an integral part of the school for five years with his PhD studies followed by working as a research fellow with Steven, during which time he also provided valuable teaching in the BOptom. Soheil has invariably been cheerful, supportive, friendly, and willing to assist with anything and everything asked of him. We will miss him and wish him all the best in his next venture.
Welcome
Welcome to new PhD student Janet Zhu, who arrived just before Christmas to begin her studies with Monica. We also welcome Lynn Mascarenas and our own Emily Benefer to the Master of Science.
Hayden Lee and Ashreet Nath have joined us part-time to provide cover for Ashley Gray while she is on parental leave.
We acknowledge the work of three BOptom students who have worked for Jo Black on a data analysis project for the Vision Bus Aotearoa over the summer: Asumi Yamaguchi, Seeun Park, and Mihaya Chan.
We also acknowledge BOptom student Eric Lai who worked with Lucy Goodman, Jacqui Ramke and Pushkar Silwal to identify Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for our upcoming eye health survey.
Our Community Eye Health team is expanding rapidly (see here for more on why). Pushkar Silwal continues working with the team this year in a new research fellow role, joined by audiologist and Kaupapa Māori researcher Alehandrea Manuel (in the US on a Fullbright Fellowship until August), health geographer Dr Jinfeng Zhao and Research Assistant Sangeeta Paudyal.