Sydney, Australia, 12 March 2018: Dr Ravi C Bakaraju has been appointed as the new Head of Research and Development at Brien Holden Vision Institute. He takes on the role after Dr Paul Erickson retired in mid-2017.
Professor Kovin Naidoo, CEO at Brien Holden Vision Institute, said the appointment of Dr Bakaraju, who completed his PhD at the Institute and previously served as Deputy Head of R & D, is a natural evolution for the organisation, with a group of outstanding young scientists now joining a highly experience team to drive its translational research activities.
“Ravi is an outstanding researcher and leader, who is already making a mark as a scientist and directing projects delivering IP now being licensed to industry”, he said. “He has received mentoring from Dr Klaus Schindhelm, a key scientist at the hugely successful medical device and software company ResMed Ltd, over the last year.
“He also has the support of a team who are among the leaders in the world in their areas. People like Prof Arthur Ho, our Chief Scientist and Innovation Officer, Prof Padmaja Sankaridurg, our Head of Myopia Program and Intellectual Property, and Associate Prof Klaus Ehrmann, our Director of Technology, have decades of experience in research and development in the area of contact lenses and spectacles.”
As Head of R & D, Dr Bakaraju will contribute to strategic direction and be responsible for operational leadership for development of translational research and innovation platforms in the areas of contact lenses, spectacles, intraocular lenses and instrumentation. The ocular therapeutics platform will remain with Prof Naidoo.
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About Dr Ravi C Bakaraju
Dr Bakaraju graduated from Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, in 2006. He is an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, India. Dr Bakaraju received his PhD from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, in 2010. His dissertation work focussed on optimizing contact lens designs for presbyopia correction.
Dr Bakaraju has been a recipient of numerous scholarships, national and international awards for his research accomplishments, including the prestigious Irvin M. and Beatrice Borish Award from the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) in 2015, as an outstanding young scientist who has shown exceptional promise to conduct independent research directly related to etiology, prevention, detection, diagnosis, or management of clinical ocular disorders.
Dr Bakaraju is also a visiting scholar at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at UNSW, a fellow of the AAO and a member of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology. He is a lead inventor on several granted patents and other pending patent applications around lens designs and concepts spanning myopia control technology, novel presbyopia corrections, astigmatism correction and other innovative vision correction platforms.
Dr Bakaraju has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in the areas of ophthalmic and visual optics, presented at major conferences and serves as an anonymous referee for over ten ophthalmic and vison science peer-reviewed journals.
About Brien Holden Vision Institute
Brien Holden Vision Institute is a non-profit translational research, education and public health organisation. It develops new solutions for vision care, especially for myopia and other refractive errors to eliminate vision impairment and avoidable blindness, thereby reducing disability and poverty.
Brien Holden Vision Institute is a social enterprise, investing the revenues from its work into creating scientific solutions and developing and delivering eye care and education programs.