Renowned optics expert Dr. Austin Roorda returning to Waterloo

Wednesday, April 23 2025 | 11 h 51 min | News

A world-leading expert in ophthalmic optics and vision is joining the University of Waterloo School of Optometry and Vision Science after more than 20 years as a professor at University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Austin Roorda is a Canadian who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Waterloo. He is looking forward to contributing to his alma mater as well as being closer to family. He begins his new job July 1.

Roorda is best known for advancing the use of adaptive optics – a set of techniques developed for telescopes to correct for the distortions produced by the atmosphere – in imaging the living human retina. His work has furthered understanding of eye diseases and basic visual processes – in one recent paper, he and his team even showed they could stimulate the retina into perceiving a new colour they called olo.

Roorda’s work has earned him much recognition. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has won many awards, including the Glenn Fry Award from the American Academy of Optometry, a John Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics.

To learn more, please see: https://uwaterloo.ca/optometry-vision-science/news/renowned-optics-expert-returning-waterloo

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