James Wolffsohn brings eye-care research from the U.K. to Waterloo Optometry
He holds an Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair in Health Innovation, and his official start date was October 1, 2026.
Dr. James Wolffsohn, a global eye health researcher from the U.K., joins Waterloo’s School of Optometry and Vision Science with a Government of Canada Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair in Health Innovation. The announcement was published on September 3, and his official start date was October 1, 2026.
He plans a research program that runs from discovery through commercialization and involves Waterloo students at each stage. His questions include how low-cost portable diagnostics can widen early detection, how AI image analysis can cut preventable vision loss, and how new insight into disease can shape next-generation treatments and lenses.
He lists unequal access to care, rising childhood myopia, dry eye and its links to screen time, age-related retinal conditions and gaps in rural and remote services as the problems he wants to address, including through tele-optometry, mobile screening and community-based monitoring of conditions such as macular degeneration.
He points to Waterloo’s creator-owned intellectual property model, its Commercialization Office and the new Waterloo Eye Institute as reasons the move suits his translational work.
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