Visual field testing from clinician's perspective

Dr. Aiko Iwase, MD, PhD is a leading Japanese clinician-scientist in glaucoma and visual field testing, with over four decades of experience spanning academic medicine and hospital leadership. She is the Director of Tajimi Iwase Eye Clinic, and has held professorial appointments at Kanazawa University and multiple major institutions in Japan. Dr. Iwase has served in key roles within the Imaging and Perimetry Society and the Japan Glaucoma Society, and her contributions have been recognised with major honors, including the AIGS Award for the world’s best glaucoma paper, the Japan Glaucoma Society Special Award, and the Gifu Medical Merit Award.

David (Ted) Garway-Heath is Glaucoma UK Professor of Ophthalmology at UCL and Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital. An internationally recognised leader in glaucoma research, Ted Garway-Heath has advanced our understanding of structure–function relationships and led innovations including the Garway-Heath map and the Moorfields Regression Analysis, integral to imaging and perimetric assessment worldwide. He led the landmark UK Glaucoma Treatment Study (UKGTS), the first placebo-controlled trial to demonstrate visual field preservation with IOP-lowering therapy. A former President of the European Glaucoma Society, he continues to shape clinical research, translational innovation, and mentorship across the global glaucoma community.

The Evolution of Perimetry

Dr. Nathanael Häner, MD, is a Swiss ophthalmologist at the Inselspital in Bern, where he has been practicing since 2023. As a specialist in glaucoma, Dr. Häner focuses on the development of perimetry, exploring both its historical foundations and the latest technological innovations. He investigates innovative technologies for visual field assessment, including virtual reality-based perimetry and advancements in microperimetry for glaucoma.

Myths in sensory physiology

Michael Bach studied Physics, Computer Science, and Psychology. His PhD work at the University of Freiburg, Germany, dealt with single- and multiunit neuron recordings in animal models. He went on to work in the Eye Center of Freiburg University, recording diagnostic electrophysiology from patients. In his research, he employed mainly electrophysiological and psychophysical techniques, trying to understand human vision. With 320+ papers (h-index 72), he is interested in all things vision, from basic science to ophthalmological pathophysiology. For eight years, he was president of the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV). In 2020, he received the “von Graefe Award” by the German Ophthalmological Society. Now emeritus, he continues research in a modest way, e.g., continuing development of the Freiburg Vision Test suite (https://michaelbach.de/fract/). His interactive, playful public outreach project on visual phenomena and optical illusions can be perused here:https://michaelbach.de/ot/.

Don Hood is the James F. Bender Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmic Science (in Ophthalmology), and has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 1969. He holds a Ph.D. (1970) degree from Brown University and honorary degrees from Smith College (2000), Brown University (2017), and SUNY College of Optometry (2019). He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of an Alcon Research Institute Award (2014). He served as Editor-in-Chief of IOVS from 2018 to 2022. While some of his over 400 publications deal with issues of the basic visualneuroscience, most concern diseases of the retina and optic nerve. He had continuous grant support from NIH/NEI for over 50 years.

Emmanouil Tsamis, called Manos to friends and colleagues, is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University, where his research focuses on improving the detection and monitoring of glaucoma. His primary interests center on OCT and perimetry. He is an optician-optometrist from Athens, Greece, and completed his MSc and PhD degrees in Manchester, UK. He joined Prof Don Hood’s Lab in 2018, and under his mentorship, Manos established himself as one of the research experts in structure and function relationships in glaucoma. In 2021, he was awarded the K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award by the NIH/NEI for his project ‘Development, validation and assessment of an automated, topographic structure-function approach to the detection of glaucoma and its progression’. In 2025, he became a Council of Vision Editors Fellow, a program that pairs exceptional early-career investigators with Editors-in-Chief of 7 leading vision journals.