Ashwini Venkat Reddy Chanakya

Ashwini V. C. (B.S., M.Phil. Optometry) completed her undergraduate degree in 2014 and postgraduate degree in 2016 from the Elite School of Optometry, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. She received the institutional award for Best Outgoing Student during her undergraduate training, recognising her academic excellence and early engagement with research. She is currently pursuing her PhD through the Indo–Dutch collaborative research program between Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and the Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. Her doctoral research focuses on investigating saccadic reaction times as a functional marker for Glaucoma diagnosis, to advance objective, eye movement–based approaches for assessing visual field dysfunction. Ashwini has gained international experience as a clinical researcher at BulbiTech AS, Norway, where she contributed to the development of an eye-tracking prototype designed to assess visual function. Through her clinical and research work, she has developed expertise in Neuro-Optometry, Glaucoma, Oculomotor behavior, and anterior segment imaging. In parallel, she actively provides research guidance and mentorship to postgraduate optometry students. Her research contributions have been recognised through several competitive awards. In 2018, she received the ‘Dr. S. Narasimhan Memorial Award’ for Best Research in Optometry for her exploratory work on reading eye movements in individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury. In 2019, she was honored with ‘The Young Clinical Mentor Award’ for her contributions to Optometric education at the Elite School of Optometry. Most recently, in 2025, she received the ‘Ruby Banik Memorial Award’ for best research in Clinical Sciences in Ophthalmology. Ashwini has presented her research at national and international conferences, contributed book chapters, and published her work in peer-reviewed scientific journals.