NFER Travel award recipients to attend ISER 2026
The NFER supported two outstanding emerging researchers with travel grants to attend the International Society for Eye Research (ISER) Meeting in Valencia, Spain.
Congratulations to:
- Aya Abbas, The University of Sydney
- Dingchang Shi, The University of Auckland
Both researchers delivered excellent presentations. Congratulations on receiving this award and representing the next generation of vision researchers.

Julie is a biomedical scientist, and her work focuses on understanding the development of age-related eye diseases with a particular focus on the lens and lens cataract. Projects involve investigating the interplay between reactive oxygen species and antioxidants to determine whether endogenous antioxidant defence systems in the lens can be harnessed to elevate antioxidant levels in the lens and delay cataract formation.