UMIST

UMIST

Dept Optometry and Neuroscience
UMIST

PO Box 88
Manchester

Dr C O’Donnell

Clare graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University before taking up a clinical teaching post at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Clare was awarded her PhD in 1998 and was then appointed Manager of the UMIST Vision Centre. In 2002 Clare took up an optometry lectureship at UMIST. She lectures on rigid gas permeable contact lens fitting, refraction, abnormal ocular conditions, clinical studies and she oversees the investigative techniques public-access clinic. Clare is Optometric Consultant to the Eurolens Research group, a section editor for Optometry in Practice, a PQE Examiner for the College of Optometrists and Chair of the British Universities Committee of Contact Lens Educators.

Tel: +44(0)161 200 3872

Fax: +44(0)161 200 3882

Email: claire.odonnell@umist.ac.uk

Prof N. Efron BScOptom, PhD, DSc, MCOptom, FAAO (Dip CL), FIACLE, FCLSA, FVCO , ILTM

Dean of Research
Professor of Clinical Optometry

Nathan Efron completed his BScOptom and PhD at the University of Melbourne in 1981, and after two years of post-doctoral studies in Berkeley, USA and Sydney, he returned to Melbourne as lecturer then senior lecturer responsible for contact lens education. In 1990 he took up the foundation Chair of Clinical Optometry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), in Manchester, England, and established a contact lens research and consultancy unit known as Eurolens Research. He was Head of Department from 1992-97, and is now as Dean of Research for the university. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Science at UMIST in 1995. Professor Efron is currently on the General Optical Council, and has served as President of both the Contact Lens Society of Australia (1981) and the British Contact Lens Association (1997). He lectures extensively world-wide, particularly in the field of the ocular response to contact lens wear. Professor Efron has published over 500 scientific papers, abstracts and textbook chapters, and has written/edited 7 books — his most recent being ‘Contact Lens Practice’ and ‘Contact Lenses A-Z’ (both published by Butterworth-Heinemann in 2002). Professor Efron has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Optician journal’s ‘Contribution to Optics’ award (1997), the BCLA medal (2001) and the Max Schapero Memorial Lecture Award (2003).

Tel: +44(0)161 200 3886
Fax: +44(0)870 831 6625

Dr I. Perez-Gomez MSc, PhD, MCOptom, FAAO

Inma Perez-Gomez graduated in Optics and Optometry from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain) in 1996. She practiced optometry in a private Ophthalmology clinic in Barcelona. She then moved to Manchester and took the MSc 'Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences' at The Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. After graduating from the course in 1998 she went on to take a PhD in 'Optometry' at UMIST, with the research dissertation title 'Confocal microscopy as a tool to monitoring corneal changes in response to continuous wear silicone hydrogel contact lenses and LASIK surgery'.

In 2001 she was awarded first prize in the scientific poster competition at the annual British Contact Lens Association conference for her work entitled 'A confocal microscopy ageing reference grid'. This work presented a pictorial array of the various layers of the normal human cornea throughout eight decades of life and will serve as a valuable reference against which abnormal conditions can be diagnosed. She also obtained a scholarship to attend the 11th symposium of the International Society for Contact Lens Research for her work on the 'Confocal microscopic appearance and thickness of the cornea following extended wear contact lenses. A study with neophytes'.

After obtaining her PhD in 2002 she took up her current appointment as a Lecturer in Optometry in the department of Optometry and Neurosciences at UMIST. She lectures in contact lenses, advanced contact lenses, corneal physiology and contact lenses and functional anatomy of the eye.

Publications:

1. Hollingsworth, J., Perez-Gomez, I., Mutalib, H.A., Efron, N. A population study of the normal cornea using an in-vivo, slit scanning confocal microscope. Optom. Vis. Sci. 2001;78 (10):706-11.

2. Efron, N., Perez-Gomez, I., Mutalib, H. A., Hollingsworth, J. Confocal microscopy of the normal human cornea. Contact Lens and Ant. Eye. 2001;24:16-23. (Erratum 24,83-85).

3. Efron, N., Hollingsworth, J., Hiang, H., Maldonado-Codina, C., Morgan, P.B., Mutalib, H.A., O'Donnell, C., Oliveira-Soto, L., Patel, A., Perez-Gomez, I., Tullo, A.B. Confocal microscopy (Chapter 3). In The Cornea,

its examination in contact le ns practice. Ed. N. Efron, Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford, 2001;86-135 (ISBN 0-7506-4798-1).

4. Efron, N., Mutalib, H.A., Perez-Gomez, I., Koh, H.H. Confocal microscopic observations of the human cornea following overnight contact lens wear. Clin. Exp. Optom. 2002;85(3):149-55.

5. Efron, N., Perez-Gomez, I., Morgan, P.B. Confocal microscopic observations of stromal keratocytes during extended contact lens wear. Clin. Exp. Optom. 2002;85(3):156-66.

6. Perez-Gomez, I., Efron, N. Confocal microscopic evaluation of particles at the corneal flap interface following myopic LASIK. J. Cataract Refract. Surg. (in press).

7. Perez-Gomez, I., Efron, N. Change to corneal tissue structure following refractive surgery (myopic LASIK) as viewed with a confocal microscope. Optom. Vis. Sci. (under revision).

Website: http://www2.umist.ac.uk/optometry/dept/perez-gomez/pg_gen.htm

Tel: +44(0)161 200 8763

Fax: +44(0)161 200 3887

E-mail: i.perez-gomez@umist.ac.uk