This year’s winner of the H Barry Collin Research Medal, Professor Erica Fletcher, is only the second woman to receive the award in its 41-year history.
The Melbourne-based optometrist and neuroscientist is the 2019 medal recipient for her outstanding career research on age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
“It’s incredibly exciting and a great honour. I know Barry Collin and the people who have won these awards. It’s fantastic and very humbling to be now included in a group of people whom I have looked up to for most of my career,” said Prof Fletcher, speaking to Optometry Australia.
As head of the Visual Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, Prof Fletcher studies mechanisms underlying diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. She will publish a paper in Optometry Australia’s journal, Clinical and Experimental Optometry, and receive a $5000 prize.
Last year, Professor Fiona Stapleton was the first female to be awarded the medal that recognises outstanding work in optics, vision science or clinical optometry by an Australian citizen or graduate of an Australian optometry school. It is named after Professor H Barry Collin, long-serving former editor-in-chief of Clinical and Experimental Optometry.
