Event report: A tour de Force

‘Taking part in Force has pushed me further and will help me a lot,’ said Polish optometry student Izabela Garaszczuk on winning CooperVision Force Student of the Year 2016. But few would have predicted the success she has since achieved in her career.

Just one year on, Izabela has joined the European Dry Eye Network, a platform for the training and career development of young researchers in vision sciences. She has begun her PhD studies and learned a new language. And in April this year she published her first paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

Not only that but Garaszczuk has also presented her research at the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society International Conference in France, travelled to the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in the US, and taken to the stage at the 40th British Contact Lens Association Clinical Conference.