Dr. Karen Lahav-Yacouel is a Senior Research Scientist at nthalmic with over 20 years of experience in optometry. She completed her PhD at UNSW, where her thesis on novel contact lens technology for correcting presbyopia earned her the Brian Kirby Prize for the best PhD thesis in Optometry in 2021.

Karen graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Optometry (Hons) and initially worked in private practice. She returned to UNSW to teach and completed her Master of Optometry while serving as a staff optometrist, managing the low vision clinic at the university and the Guide Dog’s Association. She later worked internationally in private practice and as a Senior Research Optometrist at several start-up companies.

Karen has co-authored several peer-reviewed papers, scientific abstracts, holds co-inventor status on various patents, and is a voluntary reviewer for scientific journals. She has presented her research at local and international conferences, covering areas of vision correction devices, contact lenses and low vision.