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 2025
We are pleased to announce that this year’s International Optometrist of the Year Award has been granted to Professor David Pablo Piñero Llorens, Professor at the University of Alicante, Spain.
It is an honor that he has accepted to mentor the FOOT students of the 2025-2029 promotion.
David Pablo Piñero earned his PhD at the University of Alicante in 2010, graduated in Optics and Optometry from the University of Alicante (2011), receiving the Extraordinary Diploma Award in Optics and Optometry (1998), holds a degree in Documentation from the Open University of Catalonia (2007) and is a University Specialist in Optometry (2002).
He is a full professor in the Department of Optics, Pharmacology, and Anatomy at the University of Alicante. He serves as associate editor for the scientific journals Journal of Optometry, BMC Ophthalmology, and Journal of Ophthalmology. He has a very active research career, having published over 450 scientific articles.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his scientific work, having been considered in 2021 by Expertscape as the top global expert in corneal topography, the second worldwide in aberrometry, and the fourth worldwide in ocular refraction based on his scientific career. He received the “Optometrist of Honor” recognition from the College of Opticians-Optometrists of the Valencian Community in December 2014.