20/20: NSERC Ophthalmic Materials Network

Alex Hui, a 20/20 PhD student at The University of Waterloo’s Centre for Contact Lens Research (CCLR), was recently awarded a 2012 Endeavour Research Fellowship! As the Australian Government website details:

“The Endeavour Award is the Australian Government’s internationally-competitive, merit-based scholarship program providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia. “

In 2012 Alex will move to Australia for a six month period to study at Sydney’s Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI). Being awarded this fellowship is not only an honour, but an excellent opportunity for Alex to expand his knowledge of microbiological techniques. Alex sums up his hopes and expectations of the experience as follows:

“By going on this exchange program, the hope is that I will gain some experience in the areas that BHVI is proficient in, and be able to bring that knowledge back to the CCLR and the 20/20 network, while also spreading some knowledge to BHVI from my own experiences in Waterloo. BHVI is one of the leaders in the world in culturing, typing and identification of bacteria from contact lenses, cases, and solutions. As my work deals with antibiotic contact lenses, I will be able to learn and develop techniques to properly test my materials against bacteria in a clinically relevant way, and thus give [more] relevance to the experiments I have already been conducting. There is also the possibility that I will be able to work with some animal models, as they also have facilities for rats and rabbits, as well as the expertise of working with animals and contact lenses. The aim of all of this is to go from model experiments without organisms to experiments with organisms to see if our materials actually work as intended and suggested by our experiments.”

Alumni of the Endeavour Research Fellowship describe the experience as a great way to immerse themselves in a different culture, and an exceptional way of building a professional network. We hope Alex will receive all of these benefits also!

Alex remains very gracious, thanking Lyndon Jones, 20/20 investigator and Alex’s supervisor, and his new supervisor in Sydney, Mark Willcox.

Best wishes in Australia!

Congratulations to Vinodh Rajendra for being awarded 1st place and Paniz Sheikholeslam/ Julian Chesterman, for both receiving a 2nd place! Please frequent the 20/20 site as the judges will be posting their criteria for the Spring 2012 conference!