Richard Grills, the founder of Designs for Vision, well-known optometry and ophthalmology educator and long-time friend of Associate Professor Gordon Sanderson who died last year, has been named the inaugural winner of a new award named in honour of his friend.

The Gordon Sanderson Award was introduced this year by the Australian Save Sight Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Sydney, where both A/Prof Sanderson and Grills taught.

Aimed at ophthalmology educators, it was introduced to recognise the legacy of Gordon Sanderson as a pre-eminent teacher, said Professor Peter McCluskey, director of the Institute and chair of ophthalmology at Sydney University. “It recognises others who have made similar outstanding contributions to teaching… Richard was the obvious choice for the inaugural award. He has taught optics with Gordon from the time Gordon first arrived in Dunedin. They have both been involved in various teaching courses - the old first-part ophthalmology courses and the Collaborative Otago and Sydney Masters of Ophthalmology programme started by Gordon. Like Gordon, Richard is an outstanding teacher who has taught optics to generations of ophthalmologists in Australia and New Zealand. He is a most worthy and fitting recipient.”

On being asked about what the award meant to him, Grills said it was a great honour and reminisced about the good times he’d had with his friend. “Gordon was an iconic teacher of ophthalmic optics who I have known as a colleague and a great friend for about 45 years. We had several fishing outings together, both in New Zealand and Australia, and of course a few jars on too many occasions to count.”

The Gordon Sanderson Award is the second award in the region introduced in memory of

A/Prof Sanderson. The first, the Gordon Sanderson Scholarship, was introduced by Glaucoma New Zealand in 2017 and is awarded annually to an optometry or medical trainee from the Universities of Auckland, Otago or Sydney (reflecting where A/Prof Sanderson taught) for research or education into glaucoma.