IACLE: Exceptional impact

Events across two continents in the mid-1970s were instrumental in the formation of IACLE. In the USA, contact lens educators from across North America held their first official meeting in Chicago in 1974.

In Europe, Bausch & Lomb organised the first European Soft Contact Lens Research Symposium, in Edinburgh the following year. The aim was to bring international contact lens practitioners together to learn from each other’s clinical experiences of soft contact lenses and to be a platform for presenting the latest research.

Four years later, these two initiatives came together to create another new organisation. B&L held its European symposium in Monte Carlo and invited along contact lens educators to explore interest in forming an international association of contact lens educators.