Dr Hannah Kersten

The School of Optometry and Vision Science (SOVS) at the University of Auckland has announced three new appointments: Dr Sam Schwarzkopf as an associate professor and Drs Hannah Kersten and Phil Turnbull as lecturers.

Professor Steven Dakin says it’s wonderful the School’s two new lecturers, Drs Kersten and Turnbull, both did their undergraduate degrees and PhDs at the University of Auckland. Their appointments, says Dakin, continues a proud tradition of New Zealand “growing its own” clinical vision scientists. The SOVS team is also excited to welcome Associate Professor Sam Schwarzkopf, who joins them from one of the world’s best psychology/neuroscience departments at University College London, says Prof Dakin.

“These exceptionally talented young scientists will add value to the innovative teaching making up the BOptom programme and the world-class eye health research conducted within the School.”

NZ Optics caught up with the new appointees to learn more about what attracted them to eye health.

Associate Professor Sam Schwarzkopf

A/Prof Sam Schwarzkopf

A/Prof Schwarzkopf became interested in perceptual processing, especially in the visual domain, when he first learnt about neurobiology in high school, he says. “In my first year, in my neuroscience degree I read a textbook about visual perception and started to focus my interest in this area. I actually convinced my tutors to allow me to write an essay about it instead of answering the essay question everybody else had to answer.”

Today, he says, he is driven by the mystery of how the brain turns sensory inputs into an experience. “Even though a lot of the general processes are fairly well studied, we still do not really know what determines how each person subjectively experiences the world.”

A/Prof Schwarzkopf, who first visited New Zealand on his honeymoon, says he is looking forward to the change of environment his new appointment brings and he’s exited by New Zealand’s unique ethnic and cultural mix, which opens up opportunities of cross-cultural and population comparisons of perceptual function which few other countries can offer. “I am also excited to move back from a psychology department into a more biologically-oriented department. In some ways, this is going back to the roots for me as I was trained as a neurophysiologist, but of course my research will continue to have close links to psychology.”

Dr Phil Turnbull

Dr Phil Turnbull

Dr Turnbull, a former graduate from the University of Auckland optometry programme, says he’s thrilled to be able to continue his clinical research career as a SOVS lecturer. He completed his PhD PhD in the field of myopia with Dr John Phillips and, between feeding his octopus and squid research subjects, pushed for better awareness of myopia control management and taught myopia control techniques to optometry students in the University Eye Clinic. His current research, however, investigates how new and emerging technologies, such as eye-tracking, virtual reality and electroretinography can be used in optometry and vision science, he says.

“As a clinician scientist, I’m passionate about optometry, research and evidence based medicine and try to infuse this into my teaching to inspire future optometrists. My class (of 2006) was the first year to have therapeutics included as part of the undergraduate degree and [we] have seen several expansions in the scope of the optometry profession. I hope my research will be able to contribute to the literature… help maintain the healthy outlook for the optometric profession, improve our understanding of vision science and benefit the broader community.”

Dr Hannah Kersten

A love of physics led Dr Hannah Kersten to do a Bachelor of Optometry, where she developed a strong interest in eye health. After graduating, she worked in a community optometry practice in Lower Hutt, before returning to Auckland to take up a junior optic nerve research fellowship position in the Department of Ophthalmology. Since completing her doctoral thesis in 2016, she’s held a joint position between SOVS and the ophthalmology department, with her current research focusing on the identification of potential retinal and optic nerve biomarkers in early neurodegenerative disease.

Dr Kersten says she’s excited about her new role, which allows her to develop an independent research career and expand her teaching practice, while contributing to the profession of optometry. “In addition, I am able to continue in my clinical role and further develop my areas of clinical expertise. I hope to solidify existing research collaborations and form new ones with fellow NZ-NEC researchers.”