The Vaegan lecture series is an invited collection of seminars hosted by Associate Professor Juno Kim at the School of Optometry and Vision Science. The series is named in memory of a colleague and friend of the school, Vaegan, who passed away in 2008.
Vaegan was a long-standing academic at the school and world-renowned physiologist and clinical electrophysiologist. Our Vaegan seminars mostly continued in the new online delivery format during 2021, which has brought together speakers and audience members from across the globe. These events continue to be an excellent opportunity to learn about and discuss the work of colleagues in a wide range of areas in vision science and health.
We kicked off the year with Professor Levon Khachigian from School of Medical Sciences (UNSW Sydney) who showed how his team recently developed a small molecule approach that suppresses retinal vascular permeability in preclinical models relevant to AMD/pDR.
In March, Dr Kevin C. Chan (New York University) presented a seminar about his recent research on the development of novel methods for characterising and monitoring chronic glaucoma in the visual system can potentially lead to more timely intervention and targeted treatments.
In April, Associate Professor Kelvin Tsoi (Chinese University of Hong Kong) illustrated how quantifying the structure in line drawing produced by patients can be informative about Alzheimer’s disease.
In June, Associate Professor Stuart Perry (UTS) gave our first face-to-face Vaegan Seminar in the Rupert Myers Theatre at UNSW in the window between our Sydney COVID-19 restrictions and the end of June lockdown. His Vaegan seminar explains what happens behind the scenes in the governance of the JPEG image format and future standards for 3D visualisation data.
In July, Dr Vinay Aakalu (University of Illinois at Chicago) presented a Vaegan seminar on the development of new peptide-based strategies for addressing ocular surface diseases and injuries.
In August, Dr Sheela Kumaran (SOVS) presented a Vaegan seminar on better practices for the inclusion of patient-reported outcome measures and answered questions on how to develop, select and interpret questionnaire items based on scientific literature.
In September, Professor Mark Willcox (SOVS) gave a Vaegan seminar on his team’s setup of a coronavirus testing facility in the microbiology laboratories at the School of Optometry and Vision Science (UNSW). He outlined how the laboratory designed new antivirals, as well as tested different disinfectants for their ability to kill the virus and ways of reducing transmission.
In October, Dr Shyam Tummanapalli (SOVS) presented a Vaegan seminar showing the importance of studying alterations in the concentration of tear film neuropeptides in relation to both corneal and peripheral neuropathy in people with diabetes.
In November, Professor Michael Bach presented a Vaegan seminar on the assessment of visual acuity and the many psychometric challenges involved.
You can view the abstracts and speaker biographies for all of these Vaegan seminars on our website (under previous events). https://www.optometry.unsw.edu.au/news-events/events
Please reach out if you are an alumnus who is interested in giving a presentation to our staff and students on your area of expertise.
Associate Professor Juno Kim, Vaegan Seminar Coordinator