International Optometrist of the Year Award: Recognition and Inspiration for the New Generation
The International Optometrist of the Year Award (PIOA) is an honor promoted by the Faculty of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa (FOOT) and funded from the FOOT’s ordinary budget. It is awarded annually, in recognition of the academic and professional excellence of a highly respected optometrist.
The award ceremony coincides with the graduation event of the academic year at FOOT, and the awardee is responsible for delivering the inaugural lecture. Additionally, the awardee becomes the mentor of the cohort of students who started their studies that same academic year.
The aim of the PIOA is to promote the optometrist profession to society and to provide FOOT students with role models who inspire them to excel academically today and professionally tomorrow.
International Optometrist of the Year Award 2026
We are pleased to announce that this year’s recipient of the International Optometrist of the Year Award is Dr. Karla Zadnik, Dean of the Ohio State University College of Optometry (USA).
It is an honor that she has agreed to serve as patron of the 2026-2030 cohort of students in the Bachelor's Degree in Optics and Optometry at Terrassa.
Karla Zadnik received her Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) degree in 1982 and her Ph.D. in Physiological Optics in 1992 from the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry. She has served as dean of The Ohio State University College of Optometry starting in 2014, as well as interim dean of Ohio State's College of Public Health for two years (2023–2025), and as interim executive vice president and provost of the university for one year (2024–2025).
Dr. Zadnik has held the Glenn A. Fry Chair of Optometry and Physiological Optics since 1999 and was recognized as an Ohio State Distinguished Scholar in 2010. She has served as president of the American Academy of Optometry (2011–2012), the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (2016–2017), and the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (2023). Additionally, she served a four-year term on the National Advisory Eye Council (2000–2004) of the National Eye Institute (National Institutes of Health).
Dr. Zadnik is a prominent patient-oriented researcher in the fields of optometry and vision science. Among other responsibilities, she directed the studies Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Ethnicity and Refractive Error (CLEERE) for twenty years (1989–2009), and the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Keratoconus (CLEK) Study. Both studies were funded by the National Eye Institute, with the latter being the first multicenter study in the field of optometry. Throughout her professional career, she has received a total of $40 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health.