Email Update July 2009

Dear supporters,

Thank you for subscribing to the Centre for Vision in the Developing World email updates. This is the first of what we hope to be regular updates on our work to bring vision correction to the developing world. We've got quite a list of recent news and updates for you this month.

NEW DONATION SYSTEM ONLINE
THE Two Minute Intro & TEDGLOBAL 2009 TALK
FEATURED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
NEW PROJECT STUDENTS
FAQs ON THE WEBSITE

NEW DONATION SYSTEM ONLINE

Brand new on the website is an online donation system for the Centre, available from our donate page at http://www.vdw.ox.ac.uk/donate.htm. We can now accept donations through the Oxford Thinking website, allowing one-off and monthly donations by credit/debit card or direct debit.

If you are a UK taxpayer and you donate through this method you are able to allow the Centre to claim gift aid on your donation, thereby increasing its value to the Centre by up to 28%. If you are a US taxpayer and wish to make your donation tax efficient, please get in touch.

THE Two Minute Intro & TEDGLOBAL 2009 TALK

Our director Professor Josh Silver was invited to talk about his work on developing world vision correction at the TEDGlobal 2009 conference, the equally prestigious sister conference to the world-renowned annual TED conference, which happened here in Oxford on the 21-24 July (http://www.ted.com). Josh's talk was filmed and will be put online at the TED website, and we'll update you when it's publicly available.

However, we have updated the website with 'The 2 Minute Intro' - a version of Josh's talk designed to give a short introduction to the Centre's work, the problems facing vision correction in the developing world and the use of adjustable eyeglasses as a potential solution. Check it out at http://www.vdw.ox.ac.uk/2minuteintro.htm

FEATURED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE

As many of you know, we have been featured with an article in this month's National Geographic Magazine. Interest in our work since this has been incredible, and we are very proud of appearing in one of the world's leading publications. Read the article online at http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/06/the-eyes-have-it.html#more

NEW PROJECT STUDENTS

We would like to welcome two summer project students to the Centre who will be undertaking important research projects with us.

Arash Sadeghi, who previously worked on developing an electromagnetically actuated adjustable lens as a research instrument as part of his 4th year physics undergraduate project, has returned to continue his work and help develop a computer-controlled adjustable lens research system, to assist in studying the human visual accommodation system during self-refraction.
James Dolan, an engineering undergraduate from Magdalen College, who is joining the Centre in August for two months to assist us in our work on estimating and quantifying the global burden of refractive error.

We are looking forward to the results and progress produced from these projects, and are very pleased to be working with Arash and James this summer.

FAQs ON THE WEBSITE

We've also updated our website with a list of frequently asked questions that many people were asking us previously by email. Please check them out at http://www.vdw.ox.ac.uk/faq.htm.

Thank you for supporting our work, and we hope to bring you more updates on what we're doing in the near future.

The Centre for Vision in the Developing World