Professor Nathan Efron wins prestigious international research award

The lifetime research achievements of prominent Australian optometrist Professor Nathan Efron AC have been celebrated with a prestigious international award.

Professor Efron was presented with the top award of the American Academy of Optometry – the Charles F Prenice Medal – at the annual meeting of the Academy on 8 November 2024. This award recognises an individual who has made significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge through research in the visual sciences.

One of the world’s leading optometric researchers and academics, Professor Efron is also a former winner of Optometry Australia’s H Barry Collin Medal and a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Professor Efron was invited to present a lecture to delegates attending the award ceremony and spoke on the topic “Moments of Inspiration”, describing his career achievements in the context of those who have inspired him, moments of personal inspiration and those he has inspired. Immediately prior to his presentation, delegates were shown a short, specially commissioned documentary highlighting Professor Efron’s career achievements, featuring interviews from many of his work colleagues and international collaborators. This video can be viewed here.

In the 55-year history of this annual award, he is only the third residential Australian to receive it. Professor Efron, who is currently editor of Optometry Australia’s Clinical and Experimental Optometry, held academic appointments at the University of Melbourne (1983-89), the University of Manchester, UK (1990-2005), and the Queensland University of Technology (2006-2016). He said that the Prentice Medal is the most important international research award in optometry; “I’m thrilled, humbled and honoured to receive it,” he said.

Professor Efron is internationally acclaimed for his work in two fields; the ocular response to contact lens wear, and ophthalmic markers of diabetic neuropathy. He is a prolific author, having published nearly 500 refereed scientific papers, as well as seven books that have appeared in a total of 24 editions and foreign translations.

His work in the field of diabetes explores the link between eye nerve damage and nerve changes in the feet of diabetic patients.

“The information gained during this study has been used to validate and develop novel new eye tests to detect and monitor a potentially severe complication of diabetes known as peripheral neuropathy,” he said.

Professor Efron also pointed out that these studies have been extended to develop eye tests for the early detection and monitoring of other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.

In the field of contact lenses, Professor is best known for developing a set of eponymous grading scales for assessing the severity of contact lens complications. It is estimated that 200,000 of these grading scales have been distributed world-wide to contact lens practitioners and students.

He is also recognised for his work as the instigator and co-convenor of an international survey of trends in prescribing various types of contact lenses. This annual survey has been running for 28 consecutive years in 71 countries with the assistance of over 100 country coordinators and has amassed an immensely powerful database relating to over 480,000 contact lens fits. The results have been published extensively.