I hold a degree in Optics and Optometry from the University of Valencia (1996). At the same university, I completed the MSc in Advanced Optometry and Vision Sciences (2012) and the PhD in Optometry and Vision Sciences (2017). I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Optics and Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Valencia. In addition, I earned a BSc in Psychology from UNED (2010), completed postgraduate training in Statistics and Probability Applied to Medicine (UNED, 2011), and took a course in Programming and Data Analysis with R (University of Salamanca, 2023).

My research focuses on physiological optics and optometry applied to refractive surgery, with a particular interest in multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs). My PhD thesis, entitled Novel segmented-design refractive multifocal intraocular lenses, addressed the characterization of segmented-design refractive multifocal IOLs and their optometric management.

I am a co-author of 101 articles in international peer-reviewed journals (34 in Q1 journals), and my h-index is 20 (Web of Science). I have contributed to 100 communications at scientific meetings (55 national and 45 international), and I have co-authored three books and 17 book chapters in the field of optometry and refractive surgery. I currently participate as a researcher in the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation funded project PID2021-122486OA-I00 (AL-LIO), "Design of a clinical decision algorithm in the selection process of the type of IOL to be implanted to correct presbyopia and cataract".

My current work focuses on developing new subjective refraction procedures based on vector formalism, and on the in vitro and in vivo characterization of advanced monofocal IOLs and extended-depth-of-focus IOLs.

Full Professor. Trained at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Aston University, and Louisiana State University, he has developed his academic and research career in Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He leads the ORBITA group, and his research focuses on the ocular surface, cornea, refractive surgery, intraocular lenses, presbyopia, contact lenses, and dry eye. He has led projects funded at European, national, and regional levels, serves on several editorial boards, and has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed articles in indexed scientific journals.

My training began with a degree in Physics (started in 1993) and an early attraction to Optics, which soon became the common thread of my career. During that period, I had experiences that shaped the way I understand science: hands-on experimental work (Rotary Award, 1997) and my first contact with knowledge transfer and industry through an ADEIT placement at AIDO. After receiving the Extraordinary Degree Award (1997–98), I completed my PhD with an FPI fellowship (1998–2002), working on optical image processing using multiplexing techniques. I later incorporated a line of three-dimensional correlation methods that led to my first international publication (Applied Optics, 1999) and a research stay at the Institut Fresnel (Marseille). In parallel, I earned a Diploma in Optics and Optometry, which allowed me to connect my physics background with clinical application, and I completed this stage with the PhD in Physics (2002).

After the PhD, I spent an especially intensive decade at AIDO (from 2003, through a Torres Quevedo contract), where I developed and led machine-vision projects for a wide range of industrial sectors and took part in several competitive publicly funded R&D projects. That period taught me the value of applied R&D, team management, and the need to translate real-world problems into robust solutions. Some projects achieved international impact, while others connected directly with the optometric field, generating patents and technology transfer.

In 2013, I came back to the Universitat de València to join the Optometry Research Group and work on an ERC project on accommodation and emmetropization. During this stage, I began a sustained scientific output (JCR-indexed publications, book chapters, and conference contributions) and expanded my activity toward clinical research, instrumentation, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Later, I extended my work into visual neuroscience, exploring psychophysical models and fMRI analysis. Since 2018, I have consolidated my academic teaching career, with a clear commitment to teaching through reasoning, promoting teaching innovation (gamification, active learning, the DAKI approach), and supporting students.

In recent years, I have maintained my teaching and research activity and co-supervised doctoral theses in areas such as vector notation for astigmatism, tunable lenses, and Gabor in-line holography, while also taking on academic management responsibilities (master’s co-directorship, coordination of external placements, coordination of the doctoral program, and student mentoring/support programs).

Overall, my trajectory can be read as a sustained commitment to learning, improving, and contributing—integrating science, teaching, and university service with the conviction that the university is, above all, a space for transformation. Along the way, I have tried to keep constant the principles I consider essential to the way I work: honesty, rigor, curiosity, responsibility, and commitment, with a clear vocation to add value to public higher education through teaching, research, innovation, and management.

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Optics, Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Valencia, where she teaches, conducts research and performs management duties in the field of vision sciences and applied psychophysics.

Academic background

She is an Optician Optometrist and holds a PhD from the University of Alicante. Her doctoral thesis (2013) focused on the design and validation of an incremental threshold campimeter, addressing psychophysical methods for the evaluation of visual function. This training marked her specialisation in experimental and quantitative techniques applied to vision. After completing her PhD, she joined the University of Valencia, where she has developed her career in collaboration with the FOM centre (GVA Medical Ophthalmology Foundation).

Teaching activity

His teaching focuses on the Bachelor's Degree in Optics and Optometry and postgraduate studies, teaching subjects related to:

• Psychophysics of vision
• Optometry
• Visual diagnostic techniques

He supervises Bachelor's and Master's Degree Final Projects, actively contributing to the practical and scientific training of students.

He participates in teaching innovation projects, including the development of digital resources and MOOCs.

Research

He is a member of the Applied Psychophysics Group at the University of Valencia. His main lines of research include:

• Psychophysical assessment of visual function
• Design and validation of instruments for visual testing
• Clinical applications of psychophysics
• Visual quality and perception

She has published scientific articles in specialist journals and contributed to national and international conferences.

Academic management

She has taken on university management responsibilities, including the coordination of various degree courses, and is currently the coordinator of the GOO. In this role, she has participated in academic planning, curriculum improvement and teaching quality assurance.

Educational innovation and dissemination

She collaborates in scientific dissemination activities related to vision and optics, both in the university and professional spheres.

Overall profile

Her profile combines teaching, research, management and dissemination in a balanced way, with a clear focus on improving knowledge and training in optics, optometry and vision sciences.

My career combines teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and innovation with social and academic impact. I have supervised 6 doctoral dissertations, 15 Master’s theses (TFM), and 23 Bachelor’s theses (TFG), fostering the training of researchers in optics and optometry.  As a lecturer at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, I have delivered more than 6,000 teaching hours across 28 courses, integrating active learning methodologies and educational technologies.

In research, affiliated with INTRAS (University of Valencia), I have led more than 25 projects focused on vision and road safety, with funding exceeding €4 million. I have carried out interdisciplinary work involving physics, psychology, physical education, engineering, and ophthalmology, applying research outcomes to public policy and the improvement of visual health.

I have actively promoted knowledge transfer through collaborations with industry and the public sector, as well as through the development of guidelines and educational programs in visual health and sustainable mobility. I have organized scientific conferences, including the International Congress of Young Optometrists.

I lead the GIDOP Group and serve as President of the College of Optometrists and Opticians of the Valencian Community, as well as Second Vice President of the General Council of Colleges of Optometrists and Opticians, and as an evaluator in international university accreditation processes.

With three six-year research evaluation periods (sexenios) (two in research and one in knowledge transfer) and more than 50 publications, my work reflects a sustained commitment to quality, innovation, and continuous improvement in visual health, higher education, and service to society.

I obtained a Bachelor's Degree and a PhD in Physics at the University of Valencia in 1993 and 1999 respectively, specializing in human vision models and their applications to image and video coding. My experimental work in physiological optics, awarded with the European Vistakon Research Award, allowed me to finance my predoctoral fellowship. After defending the Thesis, I was a Fulbright Postdoc in the Human Vision Group (with A.B. Watson) of the NASA Ames Research Center, USA, in 2000 and 2001; and Visiting Researcher at the Lab of Comput. Vision (with E.P. Simoncelli) from the Center for Neural Science, NYU, USA, for one semester in 2001, where I was hired again for another semester in 2013. I was invited as Benjamin Meaker Distinguised Profesor at the University of Bristol for 3 months in 2024.
Regarding scientific production, I am co-author of more than 70 refereed international publications, 39 of them in journals in the first quartile of the JCR. I have patented a bio-inspired method for image and video coding that improves on JPEG and MPEG standards. Since the research has been financed with public funds, most of the techniques are available in open source at http://isp.uv.es. Regarding my activity in the community, I have been a member of technical committees in various societies: Int. Assoc. Patt. Recogn. (IAPR), Inst. Electr. Electronic. Eng. (IEEE), Opt. Soc. Am. (OSA), Int. Telecom. Union (ITU), and Comm. Int. Eclar. (CIE). Likewise, I have been editor of three international journals of the first JCR quartile: in the period 2009-2013 I was Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (IF=10.8), dealing with articles on image statistics and human vision models; since 2014 I am Academic Editor of PLoS ONE (IF=2.9) in the same subject; and since 2017 I am Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience (IF=3.2). Since 2006 I have belonged to the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective. Regarding scientific leadership, I have been Princ. Investigator of seven projects of the State R&D Plans, PI of a project of the Foundations of Science program of BBVA, PI of a contract with the Ministry of Defense (Prog. DN 8644), and PI of a contract with Davalor Health S.L. I am currently Full Professor in the Dept. of Optics (Faculty of Physics) of the University of Valencia, where I have directed five doctoral theses, one of them awarded the extraordinary prize in Physics and Mathematics. My (scientific) interests include the statistical foundations of biological vision and its relationships to machine learning, information theory, and vision science experimentation.

Daniel Monsálvez Romín graduated in Optics and Optometry from the University of Valencia (2013) and holds a PhD in Optometry and Vision Sciences from the same university (2018). He currently works as a lecturer and researcher (tenured faculty member) in the Department of Optics, Optometry, and Vision Sciences at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Valencia. He began his research in the Optometry research group (GIO) at the University of Valencia (2013). His research focuses on ocular aging, accommodation, and presbyopia, particularly evaluating designs for presbyopia correction. He has collaborated with other research centers, including a research stay at the Department of Physics of the University of Minho (2017). His scientific output includes several articles in JCR-indexed journals and contributions to national and international conferences since 2013. He currently belongs to the Applied Psychophysics (GAP) research group. In the field of education, he has been the principal investigator on various educational innovation projects as a member of the GIDOCV group (www.uv.es/gidocv), focused on improving training in optics and optometry. Since 2024, he has also served as the secretary of his department. He combines teaching, academic administration, and applied research to offer personalized and effective optometric solutions.

Robert Montés Micó currently works as a University Professor assigned to the Department of Optics and Optometry and Vision Sciences of the University of Valencia, where he carries out his teaching, research and management activities in the area of Optometry and Vision Sciences. He teaches in the Degree in Optics and Optometry at the Faculty of Physics. He has trained at the University of Valencia and the Institute of Sciences and Technology of the University of Manchester. He has led different research projects and is the author of more than 250 articles in indexed journals. He has assumed different university management positions as coordinator of various courses and degrees, focusing his research interests mainly on the evaluation of systems for measuring different ocular parameters, as well as the evaluation of the clinical results of different ocular surgical procedures.

Álvaro M. Pons Moreno (Barcelona, ​​1966) holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Valencia (1997) and is a tenured professor in the Department of Optics, Optometry, and Vision Sciences (2000). His research focuses on visual perception and its clinical applications in Optometry and Ophthalmology. He has published over 100 articles in national and international journals. He has served as the Rector's Delegate for Student Exchange and as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Physics.
He is also actively involved in the field of comics, both as a researcher and popularizer. He is co-director of the SM Foundation-University of Valencia Chair of Comic Studies and director of the Aula de Còmic at the Vice-Rectorate for Culture and Society of the University of Valencia.

Ana Tauste Francés earned her PhD Cum Laude in Health Sciences from the University of Alicante in 2016. In 2018, her dissertation received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. Additionally, completing a European research stay at the University of Bergen (Norway) during her doctoral studies allowed her to obtain the International Doctorate distinction.

She graduated in Optics and Optometry from the University of Alicante, where she began her research career with her bachelor’s and master’s final projects on visual health surveillance for computer users and contact lens wearers. This was also the main topic of her doctoral research.

She currently works as an Assistant Professor (Profesora Ayudante Doctora) at the University of Valencia, teaching courses related to Optometry. Previously, she worked as a laboratory technician, optician-optometrist, and conformity assessor at the Notified Body AITEX, where she conducted tests and issued certifications for eye and face protectors. Until 2019, she served in the R&D Department of the Qvision Ophthalmology Unit at Vithas Virgen del Mar Hospital, carrying out activities related to ocular health research. In addition to continuing her doctoral research line—ocular and visual alterations associated with contact lens use in workers exposed to display screens—she has participated in other research projects on refractive surgery, corneal biomechanics, and validation of measurement instruments for ocular parameters. These projects have resulted in scientific publications in journals indexed in the fields of Ophthalmology and Public Health. She has also supervised bachelor’s and master’s theses related to Optics and Optometry and actively participates in conferences on Optics, Optometry, Ophthalmology, Epidemiology, and Public Health. She is currently co-supervising, alongside Dr. Isabel Signes, a doctoral thesis on the prevalence of Computer Vision Syndrome in Kenya, another on outcomes after cataract surgery in Honduras, and another on the prevalence of refractive errors in Kenya. These research projects form part of the research lines of the Preventive Optometry and Visual Treatments Research Group (OPTV), of which Ana Tauste is the Director. She is also a researcher in the Public Health Group at the University of Alicante.

In recent years, she has received training through prestigious universities such as Oxford, in topics related to evidence-based Health Sciences, complemented by non-formal training, as well as specialized courses in Optometry, Contactology, and Visual Health offered by the National College of Opticians-Optometrists and the College of Opticians-Optometrists of the Valencian Community.

Her versatile profile across different areas of health sciences—from Optometry to Public Health—stands out, allowing her to excel in various professional and academic environments.