A faculty member and a doctoral student at the UAB School of Optometry were awarded university funding for their research on dry eye disease.

Andrew Pucker, O.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, and Cameron Postnikoff, MASc, a doctoral student in the School of Optometry's Vision Science Graduate Program, received $10,000 as part of the UAB Faculty Development Grant Program for their proposal, “Tear Transcriptome Associations with Dry Eye Disease.”

After leading the UAB School of Optometry through its accreditation process for the second time, Roderick Fullard, BScOptom, Ph.D., associate professor, was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award.

He was presented the award, which recognizes exemplary leadership and service, at the School of Optometry's 44th Annual Convocation and Hooding Ceremony, held May 12 at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on the UAB Campus.

The 2017 graduates of the UAB School of Optometry had made it a ritual to countdown to exams, the ends of semesters and the many other milestones through their years of optometric education, recalled class president Veronica Ferris-Metzger, O.D., in an address to her classmates.

But as she stood beside them on Friday, May 12, at the School of Optometry’s 44th Annual Convocation and Hooding Ceremony, Ferris-Metzger encouraged her fellow graduates to savor the present moment.

The UAB School of Optometry's Clinical Eye Research Facility is recruiting subjects for a contact lens comfort study. Participants who are happy contact lens wearers and those who have stopped wearing contact lenses for any reason may be eligible to participate. The study will involve a series of commonly used clinical tests. Photos of participants' eyes will be taken.

Minimum Eligibility Requirements:

The UAB School of Optometry wants to increase the scope of care it provides to the Birmingham metro area and to underserved communities throughout the state and the region. As UAB Giving Day 2017 approaches, one of the School’s priorities is supporting Community Eye Care with the purchase of a portable optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system.

Photos by Andrea Mabry

Recipients of 53 scholarships and the donors who established them were honored at the UAB School of Optometry’s inaugural Scholarship Luncheon.

The donors of three new scholarships were also honored at the event, which was held April 28 at the Edge of Chaos in UAB’s Lister Hill Library.

Caroline Beesley Pate, O.D., is the 2017 recipient of the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for the School of Optometry.

Pate, an associate professor of Optometry and director of the School’s Residency Programs, was chosen for the award by the School’s awards committee, which is chaired by Candice Turner, O.D., clinical assistant professor of Optometry.

Four students with the UAB School of Optometry Vision Science Graduate Program are recipients of travel grants for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

Ten members of the UAB School of Optometry Class of 2017 have accepted residency positions and will receive advanced clinical education in specialty areas of optometry in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The American Optometric Association has named Dr. Elizabeth Steele, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the UAB School of Optometry, its Optometric Educator of the Year.

Steele will be honored as the recipient of the 2017 Optometric Educator Award for her “outstanding service on behalf of the profession, optometric education and the visual welfare of the public,” according to the AOA, which is recognized as one of the leading authorities in optometry.

The award will be presented at a ceremony on June 21 in Washington D.C. at the AOA’s 2017 Optometry’s Meeting.

Five students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry were recognized at the 42nd annual UAB Honors Convocation, which was held March 30 at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center.

The following students were presented awards:

Twelve optometrists will join the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry as residents for the 2017-2018 academic year. The incoming residents filled slots in six programs offered by the School, and they will begin their training in the summer.

A graduate student at The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry will be recognized at the 42nd annual UAB Honors Convocation.

Katie Bales, a doctoral student in the Vision Science Graduate Program in the School of Optometry’s Department of Optometry and Vision Science, will receive an Outstanding Student Award at the ceremony, which will be held March 30 at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center.

An alumna of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry has been elected president of SECO International, a globally-recognized association for optometry.

Dr. Lynn Hammonds, who graduated from the School in 1991, is the second woman to be elected president of SECO International. The first was elected in 1933. Hammonds was elected president at SECO 2017, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, where SECO International is headquartered.

Fifty first-year optometry students were presented with white coats—a symbol of passage from the classroom into clinical training—at The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry’s annual White Coat Ceremony, held Friday, March 10, at the UAB National Alumni Society House.

Dr. Henry B. Peters, the first dean and faculty member of the UAB School of Optometry, has been posthumously inducted as the first optometrist into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame.

A native of Oakland, California, Dr. Peters was working in private practice optometry with his father following his service with the United States Navy during World War II. While in private practice, Dr. Peters became active in optometric education and research and served on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in both the School of Optometry and School of Public Health.

Congratulations to the members of the Class of 2016 who were recognized during this year's Graduate Day Awards Presentation.

The UAB School of Optometry held its 43rd Convocation and Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on Friday, May 20, 2016. The School conferred 46 Doctor of Optometry degrees and recognized residents completing the optometry residency program, as well as students who completed the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Vision Science degree programs.

The UAB School of Optometry held its annual White Coat Ceremony for second-year optometry students on Friday, August 19, 2016 at the UAB National Alumni Society House. The 48 members of the Class of 2019 were presented with the white coats as a symbol of their passage from the classroom into clinical training.