Professor Lei Liu, MS, PhD, FAAO, is retiring after 19 years of service to the UAB School of Optometry. His research and teaching interests focused on human psychophysics, binocular vision, eye movement, and low vision.

Liu’s path to academia was inspired by his upbringing. “I was born and raised on a university campus, and my parents were educators,” he said. That early exposure to education shaped a lifelong commitment to learning, teaching and discovery.

During his tenure, Liu earned millions in grant funding. Notably, the National Eye Institute/National Institutes of Health awarded him a $2.5 million R01 grant in 2019 to study the use of virtual reality and intelligent tutoring to make low vision rehabilitation more accessible and affordable.

The long-term objective of the research was to integrate VR-IOMSs into O&M rehabilitation practice so that this valuable service becomes accessible and affordable to all who may benefit from it.

Liu, who earned a doctorate in vision science from the University of California, Berkeley, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He was honored with the AVA VI Research Award, recognizing his leadership and innovative research addressing the most pressing needs of people with vision loss.