Organisations including the College of Optometrists and the BCLA have expressed their sadness at this week’s news that optometry pioneer Professor Brien Holden has died following a heart attack.
Professor Holden, founder of the Australia-based Brien Holden Vision Institute, was noted as a huge supporter of the BCLA over the years.
He was regular and very popular speaker at its annual conference including at this year’s meeting in Liverpool where he was a chair and speaker at the Myopia Management Day.
Brian Tompkins, president of the BCLA, said: ‘Brian will be sorely missed by many people and especially by the BCLA and our thoughts are with his family. On a personal level, he was a friend, a mentor and a valued colleague. We shared many things over the years – beer, food and stages, but importantly the aim to promote contact lenses and healthy vision. He was a legend in his time and will be sorely missed by those who were lucky enough to know him.’
Tompkins planned to pay further tribute to him on a personal and professional level at his presidential address in September.
The College of Optometrists also remembered Professor Holden, saying it was deeply saddened by the news.
Bryony Pawinska, chief executive of the College, said: ‘The last time I saw Brien was in Malaga in 2013 at the joint meeting the College organised of the European Academy of Optometry and Optics, ECOO, the World Council of Optometry and the Spanish General Council of Optometry. This was Brien’s milieu – amongst the movers and shakers in global optometry, and as always leading from the front on the issues closest to his heart.
‘He was passionate about a lot of things, but especially ensuring that people could access eye care in the developing world and rural communities. He fully appreciated that optometry is not well understood by politicians and decision makers – “optometry is what optometry does” was his way of explaining it in typical Brien fashion.’
Brien was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the College at is diploma ceremony in January 2006, in recognition of the contribution he made to international optometric research and education.
Read more
Eye care and vision research pioneer Professor Brien Holden passes away