Travel Grant Award Program
As a dedicated supporter of optometric education and to encourage students and emerging OD’s with an interest in specialty contact lenses, Art Optical, in partnership with Contamac, provides travel grants to help offset the cost of attendance at specialty contact lens meetings and educational events. The Travel Grant Program is open to third and fourth year Optometry students, as well as Optometric residents and new OD’s with less than 3 years of professional experience. To be considered for a travel grant, applicants can present a case study, technical article, scientific poster, etc. and submit the application and related requirements. Art Optical’s technical team will review all submissions and select winners based on the relevance of the topic to current or future trends in specialty lens fitting, practice, or research.
2026 Travel Grant Winners
Dr. Claire Chu
Cornea & Contact Lens Resident
Pacific University College of Optometry
Dr. Annie Dong
Cornea & Contact Lens Resident
University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry
Dr. Luis Ramirez
Cornea & Contact Lens Resident
University of Houston College of Optometry
Dr. Jon Kuznia
Cornea & Contact Lens Resident
Pennyslvania College of Optometry
Past Travel Grant Award Recipients
- Dr. Brandon Merrill – Correction of Poor Visual Quality Post-Penetrating Keratoplasty with the Ampleye Scleral Contact Lens
- Saray Goy – Visual Rehabilitation with a Scleral Contact Lens in a Patient with Keratoconus, Featuring Ampleye
- Madeline Padron – Scleral Lens Management of Keratoconus with Ampleye
- Kylie Erickson – Ampleye Scleral Lens FItting in Keratoconus: A Case in Clinical Efficiency
- Dr. Hansen Millett – Bitoric Lens Fitting in the Management of Infantile Nystagmus
- Dr. Diana Masolak – Rigid Lens, Soft Heart, Featuring Thinsite
- Dr. Gillian Uldrich – When Scleral Lenses Won’t Do: Corneal GP for Post Refractive Ectasia, Featuring AKS
- Dr. Reneta Simeon – Challenges with Scleral Lenses for Patients with Intacs, Featuring Ampleye
- Dr. Josh Normandeau – Navigating Post-Lasik Ectasia: From Corneal Lens Failure to Quadrant-Specific Scleral Lens Success, Featuring Ampleye
- Dr. Mary Avisado – Drug Delivery and ‘Round-the-Clock Scleral Lens Wear for Recalcitrant Neurotrophic Keratopathy, Featuring Ampleye
- Megan Cruce – Precision Vision: The Advantages of GP Multifocals in Astigmatic Presbyopes, Featuring Renovation
- Dr. Alia Cappelani – The Use of Bi Toric Multifocal GP Lenses for a Patient with Oculocutaneous Albinism
- Riley Parker – Better Safe than Scarry: The Use of MOONLENS to Correct the Non-Compliant Soft Lens Wearer
- Tania Styma – Sjogren’s and Herpes and Sclerals, Oh My!
- Dr. Vanessa Lin – Management of Post-Refractive Oblate Corneal Shape and Myopic Regression with a Novel Custom Soft Dual Base Curve Design
- Dr. Emily Gottschalk – Presbyopia Utopia: Decentered Optics in Multifocal Scleral Lenses
- Dr. Dariela Cardo – Optimizing Orthokeratology: Harnessing Eccentricity and Empirical Design for Myopia Astigmatic Patients
- Dr. Stephanie Schumacher – Transplant Prevention – Management of PMD with Ampleye Scleral Lenses
- Janna Pham – Highs and Lows: Scleral Lens Fitting on a Patient with Severe Keratoconus and Post-Penetrating Keratoplasty
- Dr. Raymond Chartier – Scleral Lenses for Normal Patients