Sydney, Australia, 28 May 2018: Former Brien Holden Vision Institute student, Dr Ashik Mohamed, has received the 2018 UNSW Alumni Award for Young Alumni at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). With almost 300,000 alumni in over 150 countries now, the UNSW award is a significant recognition of Dr Mohamed’s impact as a scientist.

Dr Mohamed is an outstanding researcher specialising in ocular tissues, in particular, the cornea and crystalline lens as well as visual photosensitivity thresholds, who now heads up the Ophthalmic Biophysics lab at LV Prasad Eye Institute, one of India’s leading eye research and teaching hospitals.

Dean of Science at UNSW, Prof Emma Johnstone, presents Dr Ashik Mohamed with 2018 UNSW Young Alumni Award

He completed his PhD last year (awarded through UNSW) at Brien Holden Vision Institute and the Vision Cooperative Research Centre, where he had a long involvement with the ‘Accommodating Gel’ project developing a clear gel-lens system as a replacement for the natural lens of the eye for people with cataract and presbyopia.

Professor Arthur Ho, Chief Scientist and Innovation Officer at Brien Holden Vision Institute, and Dr Mohamed’s co-supervisor for his PhD, said he was delighted to hear of this recognition of his work in the form of the UNSW Young Alumni award.

“Ashik has been an important part of our quest to understand how the human eye achieves near vision as required,” he said. “It is also wonderful to know Ashik is continuing his research, which has already contributed much knowledge to this field, in his newly-founded laboratory at LV Prasad Eye Institute.”

Speaking about his postgraduate research, Dr Mohamed said, “I had an enriching experience under the mentorship of Prof Robert C Augusteyn, Prof Arthur Ho and Dr Virender S Sangwan and blessed by Prof Brien Holden and Dr Gullapalli Nageswara Rao.”

Professor Arthur Ho (Co-supervisor), Dr Ashik Mohamed and Prof Bob Augusteyn (Supervisor) at School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW, yesterday

Dr Mohamed continues to work closely with Brien Holden Vision Institute, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and University of North Carolina in the U.S., and the Institute of Optics, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Spain.

He presented a seminar on his research, “The Life Journey of Human Eye Lens”, at the School of Optometry and Vision Science yesterday.

About Dr Ashik Mohamed
Dr. Ashik Mohamed, MBBS, MTech, PhD, currently heads Ophthalmic Biophysics, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad, India. He received Medical Degree from Madurai Medical College, Madurai, India, Medical Biotechnology Masters from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India and Doctorate of Philosophy from The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. The laboratory led by Dr. Mohamed is dedicated to experimental microsurgery, biometric, optical and mechanical characterization of ocular tissues, including cornea and crystalline lens, and characterization of visual photosensitivity thresholds in human beings.

He works in close collaboration with Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, USA, Brien Holden Vision Institute, Sydney, Australia, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, and Institute of Optics, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain, and has been an invited Visiting Scholar to these organizations. He has a decade of experience in basic, clinical and translational research in Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences and has >40 peer-reviewed publications and a book chapter on the mechanobiology of the human eye to his credit.

His work has been extensively cited by peers in his field and he serves as a Reviewer for reputed journals such as Experimental Eye Research, International Ophthalmology, BMJ Case Reports, Molecular Vision and Scientific Reports. He also serves as an Adjunct Faculty to the PhD program at LVPEI. He has received several young investigator awards for presenting his research at international and national levels, notable ones being the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)’s International Travel Award, The National Foundation for Eye Research’s Young Investigator Award and UNSW’s Postgraduate Research Support Scheme Recipient. Recently, he has been appointed to serve ARVO’s Global Members Committee and has been chosen as 2018 Winner of the UNSW Alumni Awa