Rounding out this week of many events is some more exciting news! We are pleased to announce that the IU Board of Trustees has approved Dr. Cheng’s appointment to Associate Professor with tenure! Please join us on celebrating and congratulating Dr. Cheng on her promotion! This is a major milestone in academia! Now, onwards to the journey of propelling our research field forward!

Last Saturday, Arya presented some of her research at the Hutton Honors Symposium! Her research talk was one of many other great talks and it was wonderful to learn about research going on at Indiana University Bloomington! Then, with any successful talk, we celebrated with some delicious lunch! Buon appetito!

We are so proud to hear that Gryffin was named Resident Assistant (RA) of the year for 2022-23! Gryffin was chosen for this award out of the pool of RAs across the entire IU Bloomington campus! So congratulations Gryffin and happy IU day!

Kudos to Arya and her dance team members! Together, they danced their way to a 2nd place finish. An especially impressive feat when you add in the fact that this is Arya’s first dance competition! So, Congratulations again Arya!

On Saturday, April 15, 2023, the Hutton Honors Research Symposium will be held at the Wendell W. Wright Education Building ( 201 N. Rose Ave Bloomington, IN ). Arya will be giving a talk at this event! Please come and attend if you have time! The sessions begin at 10AM. Have fun Arya!

Recently, we got to celebrate Isaiah’s birthday! Not featured is a discordant Happy Birthday song!

Jenna is a first year OD/MS student at the Indiana University School of Optometry who has been with our lab since the beginning of March! Her interest to further her understanding of the cellular and molecular biology within the eye is so that she can provide her future patients the best care possible! Since joining the lab, she has been busy questioning and learning about the lens. Most recently, she helped out at the GEMS event over the weekend. Thank you for the support and welcome to the lab Jenna!

This past Saturday, the Cheng lab was able to work as volunteers at the sixth annual Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science (GEMS) conference again! Alongside other Indiana University School of Optometry stations, we taught the 5th and 6th graders about the importance of the eye, its function, and how to maintain its health. We had so much fun interacting and teaching these young scientists! We can’t wait for next year’s conference!

Earlier in the month, we celebrated Jackson’s birthday with some BBQ! Feast on this photo of us before we got BBQ all over ourselves!

Gryffin is currently an undergraduate studying biochemistry at IU. From working with patients at an eye clinic, he realized a passion of helping others through vision care! This discovery is why Gryffin will be attending the IU School of Optometry for his professional education! For awhile, he has also been fascinated by the lens of the eye and is excited to explore its different cellular processes. We are glad to welcome Gryffin on our search for insightful ways to treat presbyopia and cataracts!