The School congratulates Professor Saw Seang Mei, Dr Pavan Kumar Verkicharla and Professor Kyoko Ohno-Matsui on receiving the Bernard Gilmartin OPO Award.
Presented by the College of Optometrists, the Bernard Gilmartin OPO Award honours the most highly regarded paper from those published in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics in the last five years. It is one of the College’s prestigious Research Excellence Awards that recognise achievement and celebrate outstanding contributions to research in the fields of optometry, optics and vision science.
Prof Saw, Dr Verkicharla and Prof Ohno-Matsui’s award-winning review paper, ‘Current and predicted demographics of high myopia and an update of its associated pathological changes’, was published in OPO in August 2015. It suggested that current prevalence rates of pathologic myopia in older adults might have significantly underestimated the future prevalence rates, and warrants age of onset of myopia being considered a major risk factor for pathologic myopia.
Prof Saw is Co-Head of the Myopia Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute; Dr Verkicharla is a Scientist in the Myopia Lab of the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India; and Prof Kyoko Ohno-Matsui is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
The award was presented at the College of Optometrists’ annual Diploma Ceremony at Central Hall Westminster, London, on 12 November 2019.