Celebration Profiles – September 11-15
In honor of our centennial anniversary, we are featuring members of our optometry community — past and present — each day of 2023!
See below for this week’s profiles.
This Week, We Are Celebrating…
Kathryn Dumbleton, PhD, MCOptom, FAAO
Dr. Kathy Dumbleton is an Associate Clinical Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science and Director of Professional Engagement at Berkeley Vision CURE (Children’s Uncorrected Refractive Error). Dr. Dumbleton originally trained as an optometrist in the United Kingdom and completed her MSc in Physiological Optics and PhD in Vision Science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She has held academic appointments at the University of Waterloo and the University of Manchester.While at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Dumbleton was Head of Clinical Research at the Centre for Contact Lens Research. Dr. Dumbleton has authored 150 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts, seven book chapters and a large number of professional manuscripts and has given more than 200 invited lectures and continuing education presentations around the world. She is also the Immediate Past President of the American Optometric Foundation.
Daniel Chun-Hsiao Yeh, MS
Daniel is a vision science student, and was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. He worked for Dr. Stella Yu and Professor Meng C. Lin at ICSI (Berkeley), where he studied the unsupervised feature learning on meibography phenotype and self-driving. He received his Masters degree in Engineering Science from National Taiwan University, where he worked in Machine Learning and Vision. Previous to that, as an undergraduate he majored in Electrical Engineering. The interaction between machine vision and human vision has grabbed his attention since he was applying the AI to meibomian gland images in one of his basic research. Daniel found out the machine and human have completely different perceptions of vision by looking into meibography images. This brought him to explore how machine vision can simulate human vision and further to design a multi-functional vision system learned by machine to assist humans on different tasks.Daniel wanted to continue his research by moving into Berkeley Vision Science which offers a more multidisciplinary environment for him to investigate those unsolved problems. He is fascinated with unsupervised representation learning, especially on vision tasks and related applications. Specifically, Daniel’s research is mainly focused on using unsupervised AI techniques to diagnose eye diseases (e.g., Meibomian gland dysfunction). His final goal is to build up a world model, which includes representations learned by machine and covers not only human vision but a person’s self-consciousness and body perceptions.
Daniel enjoys watching movies and TV shows (Netflix), going to gym (Work out), and listening to Kpop songs. Sometimes, he likes to plan road trips and hang out with friends for a special restaurant or spot.
Jay M. Enoch, OD, PhD, FAAO
From 1980–1992 Dr. Jay M. Enoch served as Dean of Berkeley Optometry. He played an important role in arranging funding and designing the added floors on Minor Hall (1993). He remains active as a Professor in the Graduate School. Dr. Enoch’s publications include eight books, over twenty chapters, and more than 300 papers or reports in his areas of expertise and research—perimetry, contact lenses, aniseikonia, psychophysics, hyperacuity testing in dense cataracts, and the Stiles-Crawford effect and studies of retinal receptor optics.Dr. Enoch’s major contributions to optometry include serving as a liaison between optometry and ophthalmology; his emphasis in teaching and research, and the relationship between basic science and clinical applications; his involvement in the formation of the National Eye Institute, and the development in modernizing the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO); as a founder of the Elite School of Optometry in Madras, India (1985); and his forming of the Pathology Section of the American Academy of Optometry with Harold Simmerman.
Sara Abboud, OD
Dr. Sara Abboud is a vision science student from Mead Valley, California. Dr. Abboud completed her undergraduate studies at UC Irvine where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences. Following graduation, she worked as a licensed optician while applying to optometry school. She was later admitted to the UC Berkeley School of Optometry where she completed her Doctor of Optometry degree in 2023.Dr. Abboud hopes to advance our understanding of the role microbes play in ocular surface diseases and ocular health. In addition to this, she hopes to remain an active and dedicated healthcare professional by providing comprehensive eye care to the Bay Area. As a low-income, first-generation minority student, she also aims to serve as an advocate for underrepresented students throughout various levels of higher education.
During her undergraduate studies, Dr. Abboud conducted research on the antibiotic resistance crisis and the human gut microbiome under the Small World Initiative Program. These projects served as a gateway towards blending my interests in pathogenic multi-resistant bacteria and the anterior segment of the eye. During optometry school, she completed the NEI T-35 Summer Research program in the Fleiszig-Evans lab where she studied the infection mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on murine corneal epithelial cells. Following this program, Dr. Abboud remained involved in the lab where I now study the transcriptional adaptations and survival of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in tear fluid and tear-like fluid.
Dr. Abboud is also a Concert alto saxophonist. In her spare time, she enjoys drawing, oil painting, running, and local volunteer work.
Linda Vang, OD
Dr. Linda Vang is a first generation Hmong-American originally from the central valley of California. She received her Bachelor’s in Molecular & Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and a Class of 2023 grad from UC Berkeley School of Optometry and Vision Science.During optometry school, Dr. Vang served two years as a founding co-chair of the Berkeley Optometry Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Student Council. She also served as the Class of 2023 representative for the Berkeley chapter of the Student American Academy of Optometry (SAAO), where she previously served as the Student Liaison and an Educational Co-Director. Dr. Vang is also a Graduate Opportunity Program (GOP) Fellowship Recipient.
Dr. Vang intends to practice full-scope optometry in Sonoma County with the goal of serving marginalized communities. She hopes to one day own a private practice and provide comprehensive care. In her free time, Dr. Vang enjoys traveling with her partner and their rescue dog.
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