Dr. Jonathan Denniss

Biography

Jonathan received his Master's degree in Optometry (2007) and PhD (2010) from the University of Manchester. He then spent three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia working mainly on improving clinical tests used in glaucoma diagnosis and management through customisation to the individual patient. He then returned to the UK in 2014 to take up a post as Research Fellow in the Visual Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham where he worked on visual function in age-related macular degeneration, objective measurements of visual function based on eye movements and vision research for the automotive industry. He took up his current position in the School of Optometry & Vision Science in November 2016.

Research in Jonathan's lab is centred on age-related eye diseases including glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration and employs clinical tests, imaging, computer simulation and psychophysical techniques. Current projects include psychophysical investigations of visual function in glaucoma, development of novel perimetric techniques, development of new en face OCT imaging analyses and applications and optimising multimodal approaches to glaucoma detection.

The current primary focus of Jonathan's lab is the development of new en face OCT imaging for the diagnosis and assessment of glaucoma. This four year, £1.18 million project is funded by the Medical Research Council (2025-2029).

Jonathan has been recipient of the prestigious Neil Charman Medal for Research from the College of Optometrists (2014) and the IPS-Heidelberg Award (2012) from the Imaging & Perimetry Society. He acts as a reviewer for many scientific journals and serves as an editorial board member for Optometry & Vision Science and Scientific Reports.

Jonathan is the course leader for the College of Optometrists-accredited Professional Higher Certificate in Glaucoma at the university, contributes to teaching on the undergraduate optometry programmes, and is an Education Visitor Panel member for the General Optical Council.

A full list of Jonathan's publications is available via his Google Scholar profile.

Prospective PhD students are encouraged to get in touch. 

Research

My research aims to improve understanding of changes to the eye and visual function caused by common age-related eye diseases, particularly glaucoma and macular degeneration. Through this research, we aim to improve clinical tools for detection and/or monitoring of these diseases, thus helping patients to preserve their vision in older age. We use a variety of techniques in pursuit of these goals, including laboratory visual psychophysics, computer simulations, ocular imaging and clinical tests such as perimetry.