Nicole Noel and Xiaoye Michael Wang join Waterloo Optometry ahead of the Eye Institute’s 2027 opening

The School of Optometry and Vision Science welcomed two new faculty members, Nicole Noel and Xiaoye Michael Wang, with expertise in photoreceptor biology and visual perception. The school says they help set the stage for the opening of the Waterloo Eye Institute in 2027.

Noel, from Fort McMurray, Alberta, earned her PhD in medical genetics at the University of Alberta and held a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London. She studies how photoreceptor cells form and break down using turquoise killifish, which develop age-related vision loss and live about six months. She hopes the work leads to ways to stop or reverse vision loss in people, and she will teach an undergraduate pathophysiology course in the winter term.

Wang studies 3D visual perception and motor control with virtual reality. His projects include a VR chemical engineering lab training application and motion capture work for the Toronto Raptors, and he is developing a computational fix for convergence and accommodation problems in VR headsets with Austin Roorda and Lisa Christian. With his wife, Emily Gong, he co-founded the Asian Arts and Culture Trust, which has worked with the Toronto International Film Festival.