International Women's Day 2021

Today is International Women’s Day and we celebrate the inspiring and supportive females that we have here at SOVS.

Meet Revathy, Jackie, Fiona and Sue who continually go above and beyond in everything that they do. 

Revathy Mani: Supporting and inspiring PhD Students during their candidature

Revathy Mani obtained a PhD in Vision Science at University of New South Wales, Australia. In her PhD, she studied saccadic eye movement deficits in Traumatic Brain Injury and cognitive processes behind oculomotor functions. She received her Bachelor (2002) and MPhil in Optometry from Elite School of Optometry, affiliated to Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), India. She worked as an optometrist in Sankara Nethralaya, India and headed the department of Binocular Vision and Neuro-Optometry (2002-2016). She is a fellow of Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association (NORA), USA. She was the recipient of the 2019 William C Ezell Fellowship Award from American Academy of Optometry Foundation and received a 2020 UNSW Research Student Award. She has many peer-reviewed publications in the field of binocular vision and traumatic brain injury in leading optometry journals and has received several travel grants for national and international conferences including AAO and ARVO.  

Jackie Tan: Being involved in research and industry makes her inspiring for women in entrepreneurship

Jacqueline Tan is a therapeutically endorsed registered Optometrist, who completed her training at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and began her research career with the Institute for Eye Research. After completing her PhD, she moved to the US and was Manager, Clinical Studies at CooperVision Inc’s Advanced Development Centre. In 2013 she established the Eye Research Group at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and continues to lead a passionate team conducting contract clinical trial research. As a Senior Research Fellow, she supervises PhD students and Masters of Optometry research projects, is a member of the International Society of Contact Lens Researchers, Fellow of the British Contact Lens Association, and Editorial Board member for the journal Eye and Contact Lens. Her particular research interests include dry eye and contact lenses.

Fiona Stapleton: An inspiration in uplifting women in research

Fiona Stapleton graduated in optometry from the University of Wales, conducted her pre-registration training and subsequently worked as senior optometrist at the Contact Lens Department at Moorfields Eye Hospital.  She was awarded her PhD from City University and Moorfields Eye Hospital for her research on contact lens-related disease. She moved to Australia and was the first female Head of School of Optometry and Vision Science in Australia and New Zealand (2007-2019). She is currently Scientia Professor and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Science at UNSW, President of the International Society for Contact Lens Research, an international advisor to the Asia Cornea Society Infectious Keratitis study, the 2015 recipient of the BCLA medal, the 2018 recipient of the American Academy of Optometry Glen A Fry Award, 2018 Don Korb Award from the American Optometric Association, 2018 Barry Collin Medal from the Australian Optometric Association and she presented the Geoff Woodward Memorial Award Lecture at the UK Hospital Optometry meeting in 2019. She was nominated to the Australian Academy of Science, Technology and Engineering in 2018 and for Life Fellowship of the British College of Optometrists in 2019. She has published more than 260 peer reviewed papers and is part of the editorial boards of 5 international journals.  Fiona is a clinical scientist with expertise in basic and translational research in the fields of corneal infection, ocular microbiology, dry eye and contact lens related disease. Her research has improved understanding of the epidemiology of ocular disease, contributing to the development and commercialisation of strategies to prevent and treat such responses. Fiona has been committed to the mentoring and development of women in optometry and more broadly in STEM. She has implemented strategies for the support of women at work and has personally mentored 30 female higher students, several from developing countries to successful completion of their PhD, 15 female postdoctoral fellows and numerous female academic staff in their careers. She has been fortunate to have worked with amazing mentors and supportive colleagues and research teams throughout her professional journey.   

Sue Kweon: Passionate about public health optometry and volunteering

Sue Kweon graduated with a combined Bachelor of Vision Science and Master of Optometry from Queensland University of Technology in 2018. She received the Deans commendations, the Summer research scholarships twice at QUT, and the David Bard scholarship at UNSW. She works as an optometrist in Sydney CBD and is currently a postgraduate research student at UNSW School of Optometry and Vision Science where she is undertaking her doctoral studies on the 'Development of a valid human-derived 3D Meibomian gland model to study the effect of sex steroids on tear lipids composition and evaporative dry eye disease'. Sue is currently one of the co-chairs of the Student Engagement committee for Early Career Optometrists Optometry Australia NSW/ACT. She has a strong interest in both public health and healthcare innovations and works as an intern for the World Health Organization.  She recently received a scholarship from the Australia Postgraduate Research Intern program.