Guoqiang Li, UMSL Optometry Professor, recieved big grants to create better glasses totaling $880,000. (Photo: Ahmad Aljuryyed for The Current)
Dr. Guoqiang Li is an Assistant Professor teaching Physical Optics and Optometry. He received his Ph.D from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He worked at the University of California-San Diego before joining the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
The Current: Tell us about your personal history?
Dr. Guoqiang Li: I was born and grew up in China and I got my PhD degree in the Chinese academy of Sciences, and I moved to the United States 10 years ago. I came to UMSL in 2008.
TC: Recently you received grants totaling $640,000 for two projects. What kind of research are you conducting?
QL: We want to work on the next generation eyeglasses to create an alternative to multi-focal lens. As you may know, many people, especially those about 45-years-old, they have difficulty reading. It’s a phenomenon with aging that the accommodation ability of the eye lens is reduced. The previous assumption is to use bifocals or trifocals (the trifocal glasses where invented by Benjamin Franklin about 230 years ago). The best idea is to use area division because for each division the field of view is limited, so we want to work on some adaptive lens so that the power can be changed, and so the field of view can be larger.
$240,000 was received from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation to support this vision correction project, and I had another grant of $400,000 from the National Institute of Health to work on some new imaging techniques by using adaptive optics.
TC: What is the major advantage with this kind of technology?
QL: The major advantage is that the field of view is larger, and the other thing is, with the bifocal and trifocal lens, people feel dizzy, discomfort and some distortion of the images, but with the new eyeglasses this phenomenon should be removed.
TC: Are there other organizations or people who are working on this research?
QL: There are some other places working on the adaptive bio glass for vision correction. There is a retired professor at Oxford—he developed some adaptive eyeglass based on liquid lens.
TC: What can students do if they are interested in being part of this project?
QL: Currently I am recruiting some new students for this project. I want them to do tests of some lens in my lab. I prefer if they have some experience or background but I encourage anyone interested to contact me.
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