
2020 PhD (Public Health), Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
2011 M Phil. Optometry, Elite School of Optometry, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India.
2009 B S Optometry, Elite School of Optometry, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India.
Fellowships
2015 Fellowship in British Dispensing Optics (O/S), UK
Memberships
2022 - Member, International Society for Quality of Life Research
2021 - Member, Age and Ageing Clinical Academic Group, Sydney Partnership for Health Education Research and Enterprise
2021 - Proxy, Vision 2020 Australia Global Committee
2021 - Member, UNSW, Ageing Futures Institute
2017 - Member in training, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Dr Sheela Kumaran is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Optometry and a PhD in Public Health. She has extensive experience in clinical low vision practice and teaching. Her research primarily focuses on voicing the patient’s perspective of vision-related quality of life impacts of various eye conditions and their real-world implications as well as orchestrating reliable measurement of latent traits using advanced psychometric techniques and computer adaptive testing systems. She has a special interest in improving outcomes for older adults with visual impairment and has contributed to the recent Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission reports from a health economic perspective. She is currently leading research funded by the Macular Disease Foundation Australia, investigating the impacts of age-related macular degeneration on quality of life and developing new programs of health systems and outcomes research together with national and international collaborators.
Research grants:
Competitive Education Funding
Other grants:
Academic awards
Academic excellence (postgraduate research) international students award from His Excellency, the Governor of South Australia, Study Adelaide, Australia, 2019
The Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, 2016
Australian Postgraduate Award, 2016
Research higher degree student publication award (AUD 500), Flinders University, 2019
Research higher degree student publication award (AUD 400), Flinders University, 2017
Sri R Sivaraman memorial endowment prize for the ‘Best Research Project’, 2011
Luxottica excellence award for ‘Research Methodology’, 2011
Best scientific presentation in ‘Low vision’ in ESO International Vision Science and Optometry Conference, 2010
Sri V Venugopal memorial prize for ‘Best outgoing student 2009’ (along with 10 other awards)
University Service
2021 - Member, UNSW Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel – D Biomedical
2020-2021 Steering committee member, Grad diploma Orientation and Mobility Course
Journal reviewer
12 journals including Optometry and Vision Science, Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, Clinical and Experimental Optometry, Ocular Surface, Ophthalmic Epidemiology
Publications
Scientific reports