Dr Giovanni Montesano was awarded the medal in recognition of his outstanding research into improving visual field examinations to help monitor and prevent sight loss.
By Mr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published
On Wednesday 4 October, Dr Giovanni Montesano was awarded the 2023 Master’s Medal by Liz Shilling, Master of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, at the historic Apothecaries’ Hall.
The Bronze medal is awarded annually to a UK early-stage researcher with the best peer-reviewed research submission within the broad area of vision science or eyecare, spanning laboratory studies to translational or public health research. The Master’s Medal is individually inscribed and accompanied by a purse of £750.
Dr Montesano is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Crabb Lab at the School of Health & Psychological Sciences, City University London, having recently completed his PhD with the lab. He is also an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) and clinical glaucoma fellow at the nearby Moorfields Eye Hospital.
The Spectacle Makers’ Company and Charity offer medals, awards and bursaries to people at all stages of a career in clinical research and/or academic study. To find out more about how to apply and when submissions are open visit the Support for Vision Research and Charity pages.
He won this year’s Master’s Medal for his peer-viewed research article entitled 'Spatiotemporal summation of perimetric stimuli in healthy observers', published in the Journal of Vision.
For the research, he and his co-authors devised a simplified computational model for the interpretation and design of visual field examinations, which look for and measure sight loss in patients.
This research will help in providing a framework for analysing how visuo-spatial and temporal (time) information received at the light sensitive part of the eye (retina) is integrated and interpreted by the brain; and not only in healthy eyes, but in those affected by diseases that affect the retina and the optic nerve, such as glaucoma.
A co-author of the research was Moorfields prescribing optometrist, Josie Evans. In a recent interview with Optometry Today she explained how Dr Montesano helped get her into doing research while both were at the Crabb Lab.
Reflecting upon receiving the Master’s Medal, Dr Montesano said:
David Crabb is Professor of Statistics and Vision Research at City, and leads the Crabb Lab. He said:
Building upon the Crabb Lab’s Legacy
City’s Crabb Lab is world renowned for its support and development of the next generation of researchers in the field of understanding and preventing vision loss.
In addition to Dr Montesano’s latest success, and currently a lecturer at the Crabb Lab, Dr Deanna Taylor was awarded the medal in 2017; Dr Daniel S Asfaw, currently a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford, won the award in 2019; and Dr Bethany Higgins, now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the lab, was awarded the 2021 medal.