Invited Speakers
Claudia Hartley
BVSc CertVOphthal DipECVO FHEA FRCVS
Claudia Hartley graduated from Bristol University in 1995, after which she spent 9 years in general practice in large animal, mixed, and small animal practices. Whilst in first opinion practice she gained the certificate in veterinary ophthalmology and undertook a scholarship at Cambridge University. In 2004, Claudia joined the Animal Health Trust (AHT) and successfully gained the European diploma in veterinary ophthalmology in 2007. She was head of ophthalmology at the AHT 2009-2015, worked as a senior clinician in ophthalmology at Davies Veterinary Specialists 2015-2017, followed by four years as head of ophthalmology at the University of Bristol (2017-2021) re-establishing the department within the vet school. Claudia works with many charities worldwide, assisting with welfare and zoological ophthalmology cases. Claudia has been an active committee member/chair, published several book chapters, lectured both nationally and internationally on veterinary ophthalmology. She was awarded the BSAVA Woodrow Award for outstanding contributions in the field of small animal veterinary medicine in 2016 and Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2018. In September 2021 Claudia joined the University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Science.
Joanna Hedley
Joanna qualified from Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in 2003 and spent time in mixed, small animal, exotic and wildlife practice before undertaking a residency in Exotic Animal and Wildlife medicine back at R(D)SVS. She obtained her RCVS Diploma in Zoological Medicine in 2012 and ECZM specialist status in herpetology in 2014. She is currently Head of the Exotics Service at the Royal Veterinary College in London.
Prof. Dr. RĂĽdiger Korbel
Dip ECZM(avian), Cert. Spec. Vet. Ophthalmol.
Germany, University of Munich Â
After graduating in 1984 from the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich, Germany, he remained as an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Poultry Diseases and went on to complete his thesis on “Avian wound healing” and “Avian ophthalmology, air sac perfusion anaesthesia and ophthalmological photography”. He was a guest professor in the Department of Poultry at the veterinary school in Vienna/Austria from 1999 until 2000 and an associate professor at the Raptor centre, University of Minnesota/USA from 2000 – 2003. He is currently Director and Head of the department for Veterinary Clinical Sciences Clinic for Birds, Small Mammals, Reptiles and ornamental Fish, at LMU University. He is a Board member of the European Association of Avian Veterinarians (EAAV) and chair of the EAAV Advisory Board. He has over 130 peer reviewed and book publications in exotic animal medicine and over 400 international scientific presentations to his name.
His special working fields include
- Avian, Reptile & Small Mammal Medicine & Surgery
- Exotic Animal Ophthalmology
- Animal Welfare & Legal aspects of visual perception in Poultry, Pet birds, Raptors & Reptiles
- Ostrich Medicine
- Anaesthesia in birds and reptiles
- Orthopaedics in birds
- Imaging techniques in Avian Medicine
- Zoonosis in exotic animals
- Medical photography in Veterinary Medicine
- Development of audiovisual courses in pet bird, poultry, reptile & ornamental fish medicine
Bret A Moore
DVM, PhD, DACVO
University of Florida
College of Veterinary Medicine
Gainesville, FL, USA
Dr. Moore is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Originally from Indiana, he received a B.S, D.V.M., and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He then completed a small animal rotating internship at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego, and a residency in comparative ophthalmology at the University of California-Davis. His particular area of clinical interest is in exotic animal ophthalmology, and his research occupies a unique niche that combines exotic animal ophthalmology and visual ecology to understand how an animal’s vision helps them interact with their environment. Together, he uses this multidisciplinary approach to develop novel methods for species conservation and new biotechnology. He has authored over 70 clinical and scientific publications and book chapters in the topic and is active in both clinical exotic animal ophthalmology collaborations and interdisciplinary research worldwide. Additionally, he studies collaboration within veterinary medicine, and how to grow the collaborative nature of our profession to help improve the lives of veterinary professionals, the happiness of clients, and the care of patients. He is the founder of a collaborative care company, Vet Specialists on Demand (VSOD), that provides thousands of veterinarians’ and their patients access to specialty care nationwide.
Dan-Eric Nilsson
Prof. , Lund Vision Group
Dept. of Biology, University of Lund
Dan-Eric Nilsson received his PhD in 1983 at Lund University, Sweden. As a postdoctoral fellow at The Australian National University in Canberra he continued his work on the optics of insect and crustacean eyes, leading to the discovery of two previously unknown imaging mechanisms in compound eyes. He then returned to the University of Lund where he developed ophthalmoscopic and micro-interferometric techniques to study eyes of invertebrates. He became a full professor in 1995 and founded the Lund Vision Group, which is an internationally renowned center for comparative vision research. He has published 150 papers in the field of comparative vision, including the textbook “Animal eyes” (Land and Nilsson 2012). He is well known for his work on the evolution of eyes and vision. He is a fellow of both the Swedish and German Science Academies and has won numerous awards for his research.
Rick F Sanchez
BSciBiol, DVM, DipECVO, CertVetEd/FHEA
Rick F Sanchez pursued his education in the US and the UK with a BSciBiol (STAC, NY, US, 1994), a DVM after attending Ross and Louisiana State Universities (1999), an EU veterinary qualification (Autonomous University, BCN, Spain, 2001), and he completed his ophthalmology residency through University of Glasgow and the Eye Veterinary Clinic (UK, 2005). He obtained his DipECVO (2007) and headed an ophthalmology service in private practice (NKR, Kent, UK) until late 2011 when he joined the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) (London, UK). There, he established and directed the Ophthalmology Service and an ECVO Ophthalmology Residency Program and became Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) for Veterinary Teaching (2014). He returned to private practice in 2017 (Specialistische Dierenkliniek Utrecht (SDU)-Anicura, NL), where he established an ECVO Residency Program. Rick is the director of various ophthalmology courses around the world. He is an Editorial Board Member of Veterinary Ophthalmology since 2010 and Associate Editor since 2022, and Senior Editorial Board Member of BMC Veterinary Research in Ophthalmology since 2018. Rick’s interests include corneal biology as well as corneal and cataract surgery. Rick’s Google Scholar profile has a current list of his publications.
Leandro B. C. Teixeira
DVM, MSc, DACVP
Associate Professor & Richard R. Dubielzig Professor of Comparative Ocular PathologyÂ
Director of the Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory of Wisconsin – COPLOW
School of Veterinary Medicine,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA
Dr. Teixeira is a Professor of Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, director of the COPLOW laboratory and a Diplomate of the American Colleges of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP). He received his DVM and completed a pathology residency and Masters at Sao Paulo State University-Brazil. At UW-Madison he received fellowship training in ocular pathology and vision science. He currently holds the “Richard R. Dubielzig Professorship” in Comparative Ocular Pathology and his research focus in ocular diseases in animals, comparative glaucoma, ECM ocular alterations and animal models of ocular disease. He has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and multiple book chapters.
Sara M. Thomasy
DVM, PhD, DACVO
Dr. Sara Thomasy is a Professor dually appointed in the Department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis. She received her B.S. in Biology from The Ohio State University in 2000 and her DVM from UC Davis in 2005. She then completed a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from UC Davis in 2006. Following a 1-year small animal rotating internship at North Carolina State University, she completed a comparative ophthalmology residency at UC Davis in 2010. Dr. Thomasy is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmology and an editorial board member for Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science. She is a Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center and co-runs a large, interdisciplinary vision science laboratory with Dr. Brian Leonard. Her research interests include nonhuman primate models of ocular disease, corneal wound healing, glaucoma, and ocular pharmacology and toxicology.
