This year has seen a number of staff and student changes including:
- Congratulations to Veeran and Roxanne on the birth of their second child, Freya, on 26 January.
- PTFs Sachi Rathod and Germaine Joblin joined the Vision Bus Aotearoa team to cover Veeran on parental leave.
- PTFs Hayden Lee and Jonathan Shen joined us on a permanent basis after having worked with us part-time for a fixed period.
- We farewelled GSCs Adeeba Gibb in March, Natalie Pritchard in June, and Tama Ngahere in December, Timetable Coordinator Kyle Kratochvila in August and GSA Tracey Wright in October.
- We welcomed new PhD students Ketemaw Demilew, Lucy Liang, Amelia Yu, and Justine Zhang.
- PhD students Selassie Tagoh and Aryaman Taore passed their PhD examinations and graduated.
Significant achievements and awards included:
- Congratulations to Dr Misha Vorobyev on his success in being awarded a Marsden Grant in the 2024 round for a project titled “Do mantis shrimps use one or two eyes to strike prey and predators accurately?” Marsden grants are highly prestigious grants awarded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi and recognise and support excellence in investigator-led research. Mantis Shrimps are fascinating predatory marine crustaceans with many interesting aspects to their compound eyes and visual system. We look forward to seeing the results of Misha’s research in the future.
- BOptom graduate Simran Kaur was celebrated as the University of Auckland’s Young Alumna of the Year (2024), as well as Young New Zealander of the Year (2024). Simran was recognised for her work inspiring and encouraging people through her best-selling book and podcast Girls That Invest. A morning tea at the School of Optometry & Vision Sciences shortly before the official award ceremony allowed Simran and staff to reconnect and celebrate her achievements. For more, see here.
- Kerry Atkinson was awarded Life Membership with the Cornea and Contact Lens Society at its AGM In early 2024. Kerry’s career is long and distinguished. His involvement with not only the practise of optometry but also the teaching of contact lens content has been significant with Kerry teaching at the Department (now School) of Optometry & Vision Science under at least five heads of department or heads of school. Kerry continues to work part-time in the Eye Clinic on Grafton Campus, sharing his expertise with the new generation of optometrists. For the announcement by CCLS see here.
- Two PhD students in the school both successfully passed their PhD examinations recently; what was unusual was that in both cases they were awarded their doctorate degree without having to revise their theses. This represents an exceptional achievement by Dr Selassie Tagoh (The Cortical Limits to Visual Acuity) and Dr Aryaman Taore (Evaluating Eye Tracking on a Consumer-Grade Device for Research and Healthcare Applications). Both students were supervised by Professor Steven Dakin, who commented “What Selassie and Aryaman have in common is a first-rate work ethic. They each published two papers from their theses before their examination and both have a third completed manuscript ready to submit for publication. Writing up your findings as you go might be extra work but it gives you security when it comes to your exam, since the bulk of your thesis has been peer reviewed. This approach really paid off for Selassie and Aryaman!” Examiners and exam chairs were highly complimentary to Selassie and Aryaman commenting on their high levels of scholarship and excellent oral presentation skills. Both are now engaged in postdoctoral research: Selassie here in Auckland, and Aryaman at Stanford University. Congratulations again to them both on the successful completion of their PhD studies with such excellent results.