Faculty Profile

Bio

Dr. Ananth. S.,

Qualifications: BSc, MPhil (SN – BITS), PhD (UK) Optometry.

Dr. Ananth is a Seasoned Optometrist with over 25 years of experience in academic, clinical and research setting. He has excelled in his career in various capacities in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and India in higher educational management and ophthalmic service industry.

He is presently working as Associate Professor of Optometry in Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education & Research (formerly SRMC), Chennai.

Dr. Ananth is an alumni of Sankara Nethralaya (Elite School of Optometry) affiliated to Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, where he pursued his under-graduation & post-graduation in Optometry. He completed his Doctoral degree from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom in 2005 and post-doctoral fellowship from the same university.

Dr. Ananth was instrumental in the establishing the first hospital-based optometry degree program in Malaysia at The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital. He was the Founding HOD and subsequently the Academic Director of the institution.

Dr. Ananth has played many different roles in the eye-care community in Malaysia as an active member of: Head of Optometry Programs Council, Malaysian Optical Council, Drafting the guidelines on Approval and Accreditation of Optometry and Opticianry programmes and Optometry Way forward Committee under Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia.

He was the recipient of the prestigious Fellowship of World Council of Optometry (WCO 2010).

He is also an active researcher and has published several research papers in peer review journals.

Educations

Research Interest

Projects

Research and Education

On-Going Projects:

• Enhancing Optometry Education At Both Under-Graduate And Post Graduate Level.

• Research In Optometry & Vision Sciences.

Awards & Recognitions

Awards & Recognitions:

• Recipient of MSU SEED Grant from Management & Science University for undertaking a research study in Binocular Vision Anomalies and Normative Data In Children’s In The District Of Selangor (October 2023).
• Recipient of Teaching & Education Award (TE-25) from the President of Management & Science University, Malaysia (Dec 2022).
• Recipient of Research travel grant from Asia Pacific Committee of Optometry for paper presentation at 23^rd Asia Pacific Optometric Congress (APOC 2023), New Delhi, India.
• Recipient of Research travel grant from National Institute of Ophthalmic Science (Academic arm of The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital, Malaysia) for paper presentation at 18^th Asia Pacific Optometric Congress (APOC 2012), 2012, Singapore.
• Recipient of WCO Fellowship Award from the World Council of Optometry (WCO) for paper presentation at The World Conference on Optometric Education 2010 (WCOE6). Travel grant: USD
• Recipient of Research travel grant from Mandarin Opto-Medic (RM 2500) for presenting a paper at Elite School of Optometry International Vision Science and Optometry Conference (EIVOC 2010), August 2010, Chennai,
• Recipient of Research travel grant from The Center of International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE), USA. Paper presentation at the American Academy of Low vision symposium – What’s new section, December 2003.
• Recipient of Research travel grant from The Center of International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE), USA. Paper presentation in Smith-Kettlewell Colloquium. Design, Construction and Validation of Visual acuity charts using Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati characters, December
• Recipient of Research travel grant (in the PhD category) from the Department of Applied Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. 2003. Paper presentation at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology May
• Recipient of Research grant (in the PhD category) from the Department of Applied Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. 2002. Collaborative research study in India, November 2002 – January
• Recipient of PhD Research Scholarship (2001 till 2004) from the Anglia Ruskin University, UK (Formerly Anglia Polytechnic University).
• Award of appreciation – For Designing & implementing a software program for calculating the IOL Medical research foundation, Chennai, India. 1999.

News

Membership

Memberships

Member of International Scientific Meeting in 20^th Anniversary Celebrations of The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital, Malaysia, Aug – Sept 2006

Chairman of Scientific session, 1^st National Conference of Malaysian Optometry Students, May 2010, UiTM Puncak

Jury for Best Scientific paper & poster presentation at the 1^st National conference of Malaysian Optometry Students, University Technology Mara, March 2010, Malaysia. 2006

Advisory Board member of The Malaysian Association of Optometrists (AMO) (2015 – 2017).

Board of Studies Member for Diploma in Opticianry at Institut Integrasi Utama Avicenna, Malaysia (2016 to 2018).

Member of International Scientific Committee of 10^th International Conference on Low Vision, February 2011, Kuala Lumpur,

National Technical Advisor for One sight (Luxottica) Mass Vision Screening in collaboration with Sayangi Mata Vision Consortium 1^st to 5^thMay

Professional Qualification Assessment (PQA) Committee (2017 – 2019) Malaysian Optical

Organizing Chairman: 1st NIOS Optometry Conference (26th – 27th September 2018) – 2 days national level Conference with the theme of “Bridging Primary and Secondary Eye ”

Organizing Chairperson: Training Workshop on eye assessment for children (21st April 2018) workshop targeting schoolteachers on vision assessment to detect visual problems among children.

Facilitator and Speaker: Refresher Course on Refraction (16th to 18th April 2018) 3 days Internship hands-on workshop on Subjective Refraction for Optometrist, Opticians, and Junior

Advisor: 2^nd NIOS Optometry Conference (15^th – 16^th August 2019) – 2 days national level Conference with the theme of “Anterior Segment of the Eye& ’’

Member of Scientific Committee for 3^rd Asia Optometric Congress and 8^th ASEAN Optometric Conference, 15 – 16^th November 2022, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Chairman of Scientific Committee for 3^rd Congress of Optometry and Vision Research (COVR 3.0) September 2023, Malaysia.

Member of Optometry Association of Tamil Nanbargal (OATN), India, September 2024.