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SKERI Researchers Featured on Research! America Blog
February 8th, 2017
SKERI scientists Drs Preeti Verghese, Lori Lott, and Natela Shanidze were featured on the Research! America blog for AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month.
In Memoriam: Valerie Morash
January 27th, 2017
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute mourns the tragic loss of one of its most outstanding scientists, Valerie Morash PhD. Val was an amazing researcher and a wonderful person who breathed not only scientific brilliance but empathy and good humor into everything she did. With degrees from MIT and UC Berkeley in engineering, statistics and psychology, her skills had extraordinary breadth as well as depth.
Senior Engineer Bill Gerrey Honored with a Named Room at New LightHouse Building
November 16th, 2016
San Francisco’s LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired recently moved to its new facility at 1155 Market Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco, California. One of the rooms at this new LightHouse is named “Bill Gerrey, WA6NPC Amateur Radio Station.” It is a state-of-the-art amateur radio station that is named in honor of Bill Gerrey, a blind engineer, who is a researcher and engineer at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. Bill Gerrey earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from California Polytechnic University.
Smith-Kettlewell Announces New Wayfinding App for Blind and Visually-Impaired Travelers
September 29th, 2016
Remote Infrared Signage (also known as “Talking Signs”) was invented at The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco. This powerful system used infrared beams to provide blind travelers with information about the location of transmitters marking bathrooms, bus stops, businesses, buildings, and beyond. Users could point hand-held receivers to accurately locate and identify the “signs” in that direction.
Scientists Receive NEI Grant Aiding Blind Interaction with Physical Objects
August 1st, 2016
James Coughlan, PhD, Senior Scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, California, was recently awarded a four-year grant from NIH-NEI (R01EY025332) entitled, “Enabling Audio-Haptic Interaction with Physical Objects for the Visually Impaired Summary”.
Smith-Kettlewell Awarded NEI Institutional Training Grant
July 18th, 2016
Associate Scientist Dr. Chuan Hou Is Awarded a Five-Year Grant from NEI-NIH
January 27th, 2016
Congratulations to Associate Scientist Chuan Hou, MD, PhD, of The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco, who was awarded a five-year grant for an amblyopia study from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hou is a pediatric ophthalmologist with over ten years experience in clinical practice and eye surgeries in strabismus, cataract, glaucoma and retinal detachment. She has over fifteen years experience in vision research with substantial expertise in amblyopia and infant vision development with VEP and fMRI-informed EEG source-imaging methodology. With her clinical and research background, Dr. Hou is unique in her ability to conduct this proposed study.
UK Ophthalmologist Joins Smith-Kettlewell Research Staff
November 6th, 2015
Arvind Chandna, MD, joined The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco on November 1, 2015, as a Senior Clinicial Researcher in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.
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Smartphone app, BLaDE, detecting a bar code
Dr. Coughlan’s Bar Code Reader, BLaDE, Featured in Scientific American
August 11th, 2015
Work by Drs. James Coughlan and Ender Tekin on bar code readers as an accessibility tool is discussed in Scientific American. The work with using these tools is specifically focused for people who are blind or who have visual impairments.