Our Mission

CVDW was founded to study the clinical and practical issues in providing vision correction in the developing world. Our mission is to help people in the developing world to see clearly, thus improving their quality of life and economic potential.

Our primary interest is self-refraction, a process whereby someone with refractive error is able to correct his or her own vision without being dependent on either a highly-trained professional or the use of expensive equipment. We research the use of self-adjustable eyeglasses based on this approach in providing vision correction to people in developing countries, and we believe that this approach can help the large and growing unserved population of over one billion people in a cost-effective and timely fashion.

New products are only part of the solution, and in addition to our research and clinical trials of self-refraction products, we work with a network of partners to develop distribution programmes for the efficient and effective delivery of self-adjustable glasses into the hands of those who need them.

Joshua Silver is an atomic physicist and Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. He became interested in the emerging area of adaptive optics in the mid-1980s. After considering the way our eye-brain adaptive optical system works, he suggested that self-refraction with suitable adaptive lens eyeglasses could be a useful procedure for correcting refractive error, after trying such a procedure on himself. He created several prototypes of self-adjustable eyeglasses - including the Adspecs, the world's first fluid-filled universal eyeglasses - and he carried out research supported by the UK's DFID which showed that self-refraction with such glasses was a useful procedure for bringing vision correction to around half of the world's population which currently needs, but does not have, corrective eyewear. The self-refraction procedure is particularly useful for populations where there are too few eyecare professionals to meet the needs of the people. Josh now leads the Centre for Vision in the Developing World, and hopes to see a billion people having vision correction by the year 2020.

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James Stephenson is the global strategic marketing manager for Dow Corning Corporation's Healthcare business, and is a member of the Centre's Board of Directors. James joined the Centre at the start of our Child ViSion™ collaboration with Dow Corning in late 2010.

James Stephenson joined Dow Corning in 1997 as a manufacturing engineer at the Barry site in the United Kingdom. Through a variety of commercial roles, James has built more than a decade of experience in business development and commercial leadership. Based at Dow Corning's global headquarters in Midland, Michigan since 2006, James has taken leadership roles in a number of groups, including the Advanced Technologies and Ventures business, the Business and Technology Incubator and most recently in his role in Healthcare. James holds a M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from Swansea University and an MBA from Manchester Business School. He is also a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) and a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (MIChemE).

In joining the Centre, James has brought his considerable commercial knowledge and experience, as well as a keen interest and understanding in the area of sustainable development.

David Crosby studied physics at the University of Oxford, first as an undergraduate and then obtained a DPhil under the supervision of Josh Silver as part of the Oxford Electron Beam Ion Trap group. As well as continuing to pursue research, concentrating mainly on experimental tests fundamental issues in atomic physics, David has also worked and consulted for a number of technology start-up companies.

Based on his research experience with optics and motivated by a desire to tackle practical problems of real world importance, David helped set up the Centre with Professor Silver in 2009. His current research interests cover the range of activities of the Centre, but in particular David is interested in the creation and use of new technology and techniques in order to help provide effective, low cost eye-care to the world.

Maja Kecman joined the Centre as design lead in November 2011. Prior to that, she worked at the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design as a Senior Associate in the Health & Patient Safety team.

In her six years at the Helen Hamlyn Centre, Maja worked on a range of healthcare related projects from re-designing surgical instruments and hospital equipment to looking at how patient dignity and the patient experience in A&E can be improved through better design of services and systems. Several products Maja worked on have gone into production, most notably a new knee replacement instrument kit for DePuy, Johnson & Johnson.

Maja holds a Masters degree in Industrial Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art, London and an undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Cambridge University. She brings to the Centre significant experience of developing products from identifying real user needs, through concept design and finally design for manufacture. She has been leading on the detail design stage of the Child Vision project.

Dr Amitava Gupta has extensive experience in the optical industry, previously holding the position of Vice President (Research and Development) at Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Dr Gupta started his career at the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he undertook a wide range of research in polymer science in a variety of roles culminating in a tenured position as Senior Research Scientist.

Since leaving JPL in 1987, Dr Gupta has successfully led a wide variety of projects in companies ranging in size from startups to large corporations. His work has encompassed many areas of vision correction technology, including intraocular lenses, developing biocompatible materials, contact lenses, multifocals and most recently variable power lenses. Dr Gupta brings a wealth of technical and management experience to the Centre and will play a leading role in providing advice on ophthalmic science and technology.

Dr Bruce Moore’s career as a pediatric optometrist has been devoted to studying the visual problems and therapeutic options for infants and young children. His optometric career began at the Children’s Hospital Boston Department of Ophthalmology and the Harvard Medical School, and he assumed the position of the Marcus Professor of Pediatric Studies at the New England College of Optometry in 1997.

Dr Moore is active in efforts to design effective vision screening programs for infants and young children. He has also been intimately involved in efforts to develop programs for vision care for young children. He is a principal investigator in a National Eye Institute funded study of vision screening of children which aims to develop vision screening procedures that are applicable to broad use in the preschool population. His text, Eye Care for Infants & Young Children, published in 1997, became the standard textbook in pediatric optometry for students and practitioners.

Another major research and policy interest of Dr Moore concerns eyecare for the developing world. By joining the Centre as a visiting fellow, Dr Moore will bring his considerable expertise and knowledge to help us tackle this major issue.

Richard Taylor completed his MEng (First Class) and PhD at the University of Warwick. His PhD thesis was on the development of a digital ophthalmoscope for imaging of the human retina.

Following this, Richard spent several years working as a Senior Engineer and then Lead Engineer in the R&D team at Adlens Ltd, working on adjustable fluid-filled lens development. In this time he also had primary responsibility for coordinating intellectual property within the group of companies.

Richard joined CVDW in 2009 as Principal Engineer, and has led work on non-round lens development, lens bonding and leak testing, seal development, and membrane attachment.

Owen Reading has an undergraduate Master's in Physics from Oxford University, and joined CVDW in early 2009 as one of the initial founders.

Owen is part of the research team, and is mainly responsible for precision metrology of lenses, having built a custom XYZ chromatic confocal scanning system for the Centre. He also works on other aspects of lens construction, including bonding and membranes.

In addition to this role Owen handles administration, IT, finances and day-to-day media relations, and was responsible for the development of the CVDW website.