News
UAB's NOSA members lead nationally
By Satina Richardson
Two students from the UAB School of Optometry are now national leaders of the National Optometric Student Association (NOSA). Walter Jackson has been elected President, while Dana Shannon will serve as Vice President. Both are fourth year students.
Read moreNichols receives AOA Legends Award
By Satina Richardson
Jason Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, has received the Contact Lens Cornea Section Legends Award from the American Optometric Association (AOA).
This award is given to optometrists who demonstrate intellectual depth and passion toward contact lenses, cornea, or refractive technology and quest for continued learning and firm foundation of basic and clinical sciences of contact lenses and anterior segment. Recipients also must exhibit exceptional leadership skills and mentoring, innovation, and desire to advance research.
Read moreI See 2020: Wendy Marsh-Tootle, OD, MS, FAAO
In recognition of the year 2020 and the significance of 20/20 in the field of optometry, the UAB School of Optometry is recognizing alumni whose careers have impacted communities, set precedents, or moved the profession forward in some way. With this in mind, meet Wendy Marsh-Tootle, OD, MS, FAAO.
Read moreKeeping your eyes healthy during the coronavirus pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control recommends people avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands to help prevent spreading germs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But what about those who wear prescription contacts and glasses? Are there added risks to touching your eyes during a pandemic like COVID-19? Ophthalmologists and optometrists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham provide answers to help you in your decision-making.
Vision science student receives Graduate Research Scholars Program award
Kelli Cannon, Vision Science Graduate Program student, is one of six UAB graduate students to be awarded Graduate Research Scholars Program awards for the upcoming fall semester, through Alabama Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
Read moreRetinitis pigmentosa research probes role of the enzyme DHDDS in this genetic disease
Researchers who made a knock-in mouse-model of the genetic disorder retinitis pigmentosa 59, or RP59, expected to see retinal degeneration and retinal thinning. As reported in the journal Cells, they surprisingly found none, calling into question the commonly accepted — though never proved — mechanism for RP59.
Perry retires after 45 years
by Satina Richardson
Felton Perry, OD, had never planned to have a career in optometry. Forty-five years after beginning work at the UAB School of Optometry, he has retired knowing that he had his perfect career that filled the need for eye care in Alabama communities.
Read moreOptometry Black Belt clinics benefit more than 13,000
The UAB School of Optometry began treating patients in Alabama’s Black Belt communities through a formally organized program in 2002. Since then, more than 13,000 patients in this underserved area of the state have received access to care from the school’s vision scientists, doctors, and students.
Read morePate named 2020 AOA Optometric Educator of the Year
A UAB School of Optometry faculty member has been named the American Optometric Association (AOA) Optometric Educator of the Year for the third time in less than five years. Caroline Pate, OD, FAAO, is the 2020 recipient of the award.
Read moreOsei awarded 2020 Ezell Fellowship
The American Academy of Optometry Foundation (AAOF) has awarded Kwaku Osei, OD, Vision Science Graduate Program student, the 2020 Mike Daley/Essilor Ezell Fellowship.
Read moreNichols elected to NAEVR/AEVR board of directors
Kelly K. Nichols, OD MPH, PhD, FAAO, dean of the UAB School of Optometry, has been elected to serve on the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) and the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR) Board of Directors in the class of 2020-2023.
Read moreChallenge helps honor the accomplishments of graduating fourth year students
Getting through professional school is challenging. Some students, like Kate Daluyin, 2020 class president of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry, would compare it to running a marathon. For the School of Optometry’s class of 2020, this rang true — especially in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Call receives UAB Excellence in Teaching Award
Terri Call, OD, has been awarded the UAB 2020 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is based solely on outstanding accomplishments in teaching as demonstrated, in part, by her thorough knowledge of the subject area and exemplary classroom instruction.
Read moreI See 2020: Mary Jean Sanspree, PhD
In recognition of the year 2020 and the significance of 20/20 in the field of optometry, the UAB School of Optometry is recognizing alumni whose careers have impacted communities, set precedents or moved the profession forward in some way. With this in mind, meet Mary Jean Sanspree, PhD, retired UAB School of Optometry faculty member. Sanspree served as director and associate scientist of education and outreach in vision research at the school. She was part of a team that saw a need for eye care in Alabama’s Black Belt. After being awarded multiple grants to initiate a longitudinal study about eye health in our Black Belt counties, outreach to the Black Belt that continues today through Community Eye Care (CEC) began.
Read moreLoop retires after 42 years
After 42 years at the UAB School of Optometry, Michael Loop, PhD, associate professor of Optometry and Vision Sciences, retires effective April 30th.
Read moreUAB Eye Care introduces telehealth eye care
UAB Eye Care, the clinical arm of the UAB School of Optometry, has introduced telehealth eye care. The new service is in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and allows patients to receive eye care without leaving home.
Read moreOptometry student selected for competitive Essilor internship
Elora Robbani, a fourth year student at the UAB School of Optometry, has been selected for an Essilor internship this summer for which only one fourth year student is selected annually.
Read moreUABSO COVID-19 Update
Savage awarded F32 grant to study the relationship between orientation and color selectivity in the primary visual cortex
Michael Savage, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, has been awarded an NEI/NIH F32 grant to study the relationship between neuronal orientation and color selectivity in the primary visual cortex.
The grant is for three years, totaling $136,823. It has been 20 years since one of these competitive postdoctoral grants from NEI was won by someone in the UAB School of Optometry.
Read moreSincich receives grant renewal from NIH for research on imaging and stimulation of photoreceptors
Lawrence Sincich, Ph.D., associate professor and interim director of the graduate program in the School of Optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has received a grant renewal of $1.02 million from the National Institutes of Health, continuing his research on imaging and microstimulation of photoreceptors, the cells in the eyes that allow people to see.