About the Program
Optometrists provide primary vision care, including comprehensive eye examinations and the diagnosis, treatment, and management of most eye conditions and diseases. To prepare you as a professional capable of meeting this broad scope of responsibilities, the curriculum at Berkeley Optometry is designed to provide first-rate clinical training as well as instruction in the science of vision.
Our world-class faculty offer comprehensive clinical training enhanced by cutting-edge education in vision science. They will prepare you to meet the challenges of expanding primary eye care. You will acquire knowledge of cell and molecular biology, pharmacology, genetics, epidemiology of eye disorders, and state-of-the-art clinical technology. You will also have training in all clinical areas, including primary care and specialties such as binocular disorders, contact lenses, low vision, ocular disease, geriatrics, pediatrics, and refractive surgery.
The Clinics
Berkeley Optometry operates its teaching clinics on a twelve-month basis. Our students have progressively more clinical training and responsibility as they advance through the four-year degree program. Third-year students spend about half their time in clinic, while fourth-year students spend virtually all their time in clinic.
One key element in the Berkeley Optometry program is the provision of in-depth clinical experience in a variety of settings. Our intensive-training clinics (On-Campus Clinics, Off-Campus Externship Clinics, and Community Outreach Clinics) offer services to populations associated with our Berkeley Optometry clinics or affiliated clinics around the country and the world.
The Meredith Morgan Eye Center provides comprehensive eye care to members of the Berkeley campus and the local community. There are more than 80,000 patient visits each year for which our faculty and students provide a full range of services from primary eye care to the diagnosis and management of vision problems caused by diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetes. All students also participate in external clinical rotations. At the end of the four-year OD Program, each student will have, on average, examined 2,500 patients.
The Curriculum
Berkeley Optometry makes a major contribution to the field of health care by training skilled practitioners through a curriculum that is continuously updated to reflect the latest in research and clinical training. We are dedicated to keeping pace with the expanding field of optometry and the profession's move toward a more extensive health science model of primary care.
As you look through the course descriptions in our curriculum, you will see the depth and range of study and training offered by our Optometry program. One exciting and effective approach is introducing our students to clinical education from the first day.
For example, OPTOM 200A (Clinical Examination of the Visual System; fall semester) is taught in the first semester of the program, when you will learn how to take case histories, perform preliminary examinations of the eye, and measure refractive error. By the spring of your first year, OPTOM 200B (Clinical Examination of the Visual System; spring semester) will introduce you to advanced examination techniques. These clinical procedures will be complemented by course work in biology, optics, and pharmacology. We have found that this early introduction to the clinical examination, combined with basic science courses, makes the learning of optometry interesting and relevant. Please look at our curriculum and see for yourself how we integrate clinical and basic science from the beginning.
Admissions
Admission to the Doctor of Optometry (OD) Program
Note: Applicants for optometric study in the United States and Puerto Rico use a common application service, OptomCAS. By utilizing a common application service, prospective students file one application that can be sent to multiple schools and colleges of optometry. The Admissions and Student Affairs Office is thrilled to be a participant OptomCAS school as we strive to make the application process more efficient and convenient for you.
More information can be found here: www.optomcas.org
To be considered for admission to the School of Optometry in full-time regular status, you must meet the Application Requirements. More detailed information can be found on our website.
Doctoral Degree Requirements
Curriculum by Year (OD Program)
First-Year Curriculum (39.5 units)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Fall | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [3] | ||
| Geometric Optics [4] | ||
| Visual Perception Sensitivity [4.5] | ||
| Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye [2] | ||
| Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology of the Eye and Visual System [2] | ||
| Health Economics, Law and Policy for Optometrists [2] | ||
| Spring | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [3] | ||
| Optics of Ophthalmic Lenses [4] | ||
| Optical System and Physical Optics [4] | ||
| Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye and Visual System [3] | ||
| Oculomotor Functions and Neurology [2] | ||
| Binocular Vision and Space Perception [2] | ||
Second-Year Curriculum (34 units)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Fall | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Evidence Based Optometry [1] | ||
| Advanced Clinical Optics [2] | ||
| Systemic Pharmacology [2.5] | ||
| Systemic Disease and its Ocular Manifestations [3] | ||
OPTOM 270B | Course Not Available [2] | |
| Visual System Development [2] | ||
| Spring | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Clinical Examination of the Visual System [2] | ||
| Ocular Pharmacology [2.5] | ||
| Systemic Disease and its Ocular Manifestations [3] | ||
| Diagnosis and Treatment of Sensory/Motor Anomalies [3] | ||
| Contact Lenses: Examination Principles and Practice [3] | ||
| Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye and Visual System [2] | ||
Third-Year Curriculum (45.5 units)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Summer | ||
| Optometry Clinics [8] | ||
| Introduction to Clinical Topics for the New Clinician [2] | ||
| Fall | ||
| Advanced Management and Rehabilitation of Sensory/Motor Anomalies [3] | ||
| Diagnosis and Treatment of Anterior Segment Ocular Disease [4] | ||
| Low Vision [2.5] | ||
| Optometry Clinics [9] | ||
| Advanced Procedures in Ocular Disease Diagnosis [2] | ||
| Spring | ||
| Diagnosis and Treatment of Posterior Segment Ocular Disease [4] | ||
| Eyecare Business and Professional Management II [2] | ||
| Optometry Clinics [9] | ||
Fourth-Year Curriculum (46 units)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Summer | ||
| Advanced Optometry Clinic [2.5] | ||
| Specialty Clinics [2.5] | ||
| Fall | ||
| Advanced Optometry Clinic [9] | ||
| Specialty Clinics [7] | ||
| Grand Rounds and Seminar [2] | ||
| Spring | ||
| Advanced Optometry Clinic [9] | ||
| Specialty Clinics [7] | ||
| Grand Rounds and Seminar [2] | ||
Faculty and Instructors
Faculty
Sarah Arneal, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Sia Assar, Assistant Clinical Professor.
O. Vanessa Avery, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Premilla Banwait, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Lisa Barcellos, Public Health.
Shirin Barez, Clinical Professor.
Tran Bianconi, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Sonia Bishop, Psychology.
Dennis S. Burger, Clinical Professor.
Amara Callahan, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Thomas Callan, Clinical Professor.
Molly Cardenal Phan, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Nancy Carteron, Clinical Professor.
Joan Castaneda Astorino, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Alvaro Castillo, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Stefanie Chan, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Debora Mingjai Chen, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Lu Chen, Professor.
Marlena A. Chu, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Stephen R. Chun, Clinical Professor.
Susana Chung, Professor.
Patrick Clark, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Emily Cooper, Assistant Professor.
Jorge Anthony Cuadros Od Phd, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jennifer Currier, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Quan Dao, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Robert Dister, Clinical Professor.
Bernie Dolan, Clinical Professor.
Kathryn Dumbleton, Associate Clinical Professor.
David Evans, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Hany Farid, School of Information.
* Marla Feller, Molecular & Cellular Biology.
Jennifer Fisher, Assistant Clinical Professor.
John Flanagan, Professor.
Suzanne Fleiszig, Professor.
Dennis Fong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Sara L. Frane, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jack Gallant, Psychology.
Cheslyn Gan, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Ken S. Gee, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Xiahou Gong, Professor.
Celia Gong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Emily Gorski, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Harry Green, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Karsten Gronert, Professor.
Sandra Nelle Harpster, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Patsy Harvey, Clinical Professor.
Dan Harvitt, Associate Clinical Professor.
Pia Hoenig, Clinical Professor.
Michele Hoff, Associate Clinical Professor.
Cheyenne Chinea Huber, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Carl H. Jacobsen, Clinical Professor.
Na Ji, Molecular & Cellular Biology.
Ludmila Gueorguieva Jikovska, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Molly Johnson, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Kathryn Johnson Boe, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Heather Jones, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Liandra Jung, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jasmine Jazzi Junge, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Kuniyoshi Kanai, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Isabel Kazemi, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Nicholas G. Kerry, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Lily Kim, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Stan Klein, Professor.
Don Knauss, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Sarah Kochik Singh, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Richard Kramer, Molecular & Cellular Biology.
Katherine Lai, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Linh Ngan Le, Assistant Clinical Professor.
George Lee, Associate Clinical Professor.
James S. Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor.
James Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Dennis Levi, Professor.
Janis Lightman, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Valerie Lim, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Meng Lin, Professor.
Yue (Maria) Liu, Assistant Professor.
Jitendra Malik, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.
Melanie Louise Mason, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Nancy McNamara, Professor.
Randall Ray Mcpherran, Associate Clinical Professor.
Nicole Mercho, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Andrew Mick, Associate Clinical Professor.
Karen Molina, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Anne Mika Moy, Clinical Professor.
Ghazal Naseri, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Charles Ngo, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Teresa Nguyen, Assistant Clinical Professor.
James O'Brien, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.
Bruno Olshausen, Professor.
Winson Ong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Deborah Orel-Bixler, Professor.
Jorge Otero-Milan, Assistant Professor.
Glen Ozawa, Associate Clinical Professor.
Sascha Penn, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Marisa Perez, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Ella Piflaks, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Teresa Puthussery, Assistant Professor.
Clayton Radke, Chemistry.
Matthew Alan Rhodes, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Vicki Rich, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Austin Roorda, Professor.
Claudia Cynthia Ruegg, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jon Sakuda, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Pam Satjawatcharaphong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jennifer Seino, Associate Clinical Professor.
Todd D. Severin, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Aaron Severson, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Angela Shabazian, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Mark Sherstinsky, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Ruth Shoge, Associate Clinical Professor.
Mary Ann C. Shui, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Jeremy Ross Shumaker, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Michael Silver, Professor.
Kelvin Tang, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Anne Yun Keu Tasaki, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Rowland Taylor, Professor.
Jacqueline Marie Theis, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Kathy Tran, Associate Clinical Professor.
Nguyen (Wynn) Tran, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Tan Truong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Tiffany Truong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Doris Tsao, Molecular & Cellular Biology.
Will Tuten, Professor.
Melissa A. Valdellon, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Lee Quin Vien, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Alfred Vong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Yen-Linh Thi Vu, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Karen Walker-Brandreth, Clinical Professor.
Shiyin Linda Wang, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Yi YI Charlotte Wang, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Tracy Wang, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Lillian Ing-Ling Wang, Associate Clinical Professor.
Crystal Wang Wen, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Tonya Watson, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Anthony White, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Anthony Roscoe White, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Meredith Margaret Whiteside, Clinical Professor.
David Whitney, Psychology.
Christine Wildsoet, Professor.
Chris Wilmer, Clinical Professor.
Walter Andrew Wong, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Mark Yu-Tai Wu, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Ava, DDS Wu, Clinical Professor.
Meng-Hua (Mo) Wu, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Dan Yang, Molecular & Cellular Biology.
David Yang, Clinical Professor.
Kerri Kimi Yoshiyama, Assistant Clinical Professor.
Vikki Yu, Associate Clinical Professor.
Stella Yu, International Computer Science Institute.
Clinical Instructors
Joan Browne, Clinical Instructor.
Edward Chu, Clinical Instructor.
Barbara Cohn, Clinical Instructor.
Mark Dunbar, Clinical Instructor.
Denis Finny, Clinical Instructor.
Geeta Girdher, Clinical Instructor.
Donald Knauss, Clinical Instructor.
Kristine Loo, Clinical Instructor.
Sarah Lopez, Clinical Instructor.
Deana Lum, Clinical Instructor.
Andrew Magnum, Clinical Instructor.
Burke Manning, Clinical Instructor.
Emily Mathiak, Clinical Instructor.
Amanda Mindy Miskewicz-Zastrow, Clinical Instructor.
Mary Anne Murphy, Clinical Instructor.
Tran Nguyen, Clinical Instructor.
Chelsia Park, Clinical Instructor.
Justin Sandholm, Clinical Instructor.
A. Lee Scaief, Clinical Instructor.
Andrew Ta, Clinical Instructor.
Susanna Tamkins, Clinical Instructor.
Jenny Truong, Clinical Instructor.
Melissa Turner, Clinical Instructor.
Katherine T. Warner, Clinical Instructor.
Nazret Weldeghiorgis, Clinical Instructor.
Diana Wu, Clinical Instructor.
Kasey Zann, Clinical Instructor.
Helen Zhou, Clinical Instructor.
Emeritus Faculty
Mark M. Anderson O.D., Retired Clinical Faculty.
Ian Bailey, Emeritus.
Richard William Baker, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Martin S. Banks, Emeritus.
Darrell Carter, Retired Clinical Faculty.
John C. Corzine, Pending Emeritus Status.
Karen DeValois, Emeritus.
Robert DiMartino, Emeritus.
Robert Dister, Pending Emeritus Status.
Weylin Eng, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Jay Enoch, Emeritus.
Sarah N. G. Fisher, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Dennis W. Fong, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Ralph Freeman, Emeritus.
Cheslyn Gan, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Robert B. Greer, Retired Clinical Faculty.
J. David Grisham, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Gunilla Haegerstrom-Portnoy , Emeritus.
Michael Harris, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Michelle Hoff, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Nicholas Kerry, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Kenneth N. Lowe, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Patricia Lynch, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Robert Mandell, Emeritus.
Paul Peng, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Kenneth Polse, Emeritus.
Edward Revelli, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Thomas Rowley, Retired Clinical Faculty.
George Russell, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Don Sarver, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Clifton Schor, Emeritus.
Lawrence Thal, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Richard Van Sluyters, Emeritus.
Wayne Verdon, Emeritus.
Karen Walker-Brandreth, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Gerald Westheimer, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Barry C. Winston, Retired Clinical Faculty.
Contact Information
Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science
Minor Hall
Phone: 510-643-5968
Admissions and Student Affairs Office
380 Minor Hall
Phone: 510-642-9537
Fax: 510-643-7111