The school welcomed a number of staff and postgraduate students this year:
Staff
- Veeran Morar returned from parental leave
- Sanjay Marasini and Jordan Cooper took on casual roles assisting with dry eye clinics
- Alyssa Lie took up a new full time Lecturer position from 1 July
- Lecturer Tina Gao returned from parental leave part-time
- Maria Rastberg: Research Programme Manager
- Eleanor Surtida: joined the school in March from the Department of Anaesthiology as GSC
- A large number of research fellows and research assistants joined or extended roles supporting various projects
Students
- PhD students Vicky Wang and Sachi Rathod to work with Jo Black, Sila Vea with Jo and Jacqui Ramke, Suroma Nag and Jiajun Zhang to work with Misha Vorobyev, Eric Lai to work with Jacqui, and Jiajia Gao to work with John Phillips
- MHSc student Melissa Hargreaves working with Misha
- Aariana Rao, Master of Biomedical Sciences student working with Jordan Lloyd and Monica Acosta
- Roberta Gough changed from RA role to MHSc under Alyssa’s supervision from 21 July
We sadly farewelled some long-standing members of staff as well:
- Kerry Atkinson retired on 4 July 2025 after a very long association with the school
- Veeran Morar and Fionna Maheno-Urlich’s roles supporting the 5-year Vision Bus Aotearoa pilot project ended in December
Congratulations to Renita Martis and Emily Benefer for their new bundles of joy welcomed during 2025.