Dr Narayan, who has recently been appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Optometry in the Faculty of Science & Engineering at ARU, collected the award during the ceremony this month at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The award is for an optometrist who “uses their optometric skills to enhance the lives of patients, colleagues and the community” and who “goes the extra mile for patients and the profession”.
The annual awards are organised by Optician magazine and the judges said that Dr Narayan’s approach “will become a blueprint for eyecare in the future”. At the time of the awards submission, Dr Narayan worked as a locum optometrist at independent practice Anstee and Proctor, and as a visiting clinician at Aston University.
Since this summer he has been based full time at ARU, where his role includes supervising clinics at the University Eye Clinic on East Road in Cambridge, a fully-equipped opticians that is open to the public and is used to train students on ARU’s BOptom (Hons) Optometry course.
Dr Narayan said: “I’m incredibly proud to have received this award. It is judged by experts from within the industry and I was pleased just to be shortlisted. To hear my name read out during the ceremony was an unbelievable experience.
“We have fantastic facilities here at ARU and I’m working with a wonderful team in Vision and Hearing Sciences, where I’m committed to supporting students gain confidence by combining theory with clinical skills, helping them develop a more holistic approach to eye care.”