Current Research in the College of Optometry

Dr. Bill Edmondson, M.A.T., O.D., F.A.A.O., is a professor of Optometry and is the Chief of the Contact Lens Clinic at Oklahoma’s College of Optometry. As well as serving as attending faculty in the Acute Eye Care Clinic at W.W. Hastings IHS Hospital, he teaches courses in both Specialty Contact Lenses & Ocular Pharmacology. Dr. Edmondson is a member of the educational advisory committee for the Gas Permeable Lens Contact Lens Institute (GPLI), Paragon CRT academic program, and other educational programs in the contact lens industry.

Dr. Edmondson has authored articles, posters and textbook chapters on detection and treatment of ocular disease, clinical pharmacology, and contact lens practice. He is typically involved in clinically oriented research projects in these areas. In addition, he is a referee for journal publications on ocular pharmacology & for contact lenses.

After completing graduate school at Indiana University and his optometric education at Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Dr. Edmondson entered private practice in West Virginia just as optometry obtained therapeutic privileges. With the laser privileges while in Oklahoma, he has been fortunate to be able to practice full scope Optometry for his entire career. See vita.

Linda L. Edmondson, M.S., O.D., F.A.A.O., is a professor of Optometry and is the Chief of the Vision Rehabilitation Service at the College of Optometry. In addition, Dr. Edmondson serves as attending faculty in the Contact Lens and Primary Eye care clinics. She teaches courses in both Vision Rehabilitation (Low Vision) and Epidemiology. Dr. Edmondson is a member of the Low Vision Rehabilitation and Contact Lens Sections of both the American Academy of Optometry and the American Optometric Association and is also a member of the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators.

Dr. Edmondson is frequently involved in clinically oriented research projects. Studies that Dr. Edmondson has recently completed are: Photographic Simulation of what a visually impaired person sees, and a poster on Student Clinician Views of 30-Day Continuous Wear Contact lenses and Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT). In 2004, she co-authored a journal article in the Contact Lens Spectrum based on contact lens research: Masking Cylinder with Aspheric Soft Lenses.

After completing graduate school at Indiana University and her optometric education at Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Dr. Edmondson was in private practice in West Virginia prior to joining the faculty at NSU. During this time, she specialized in vision rehabilitation and contact lenses, and her practice was the State of West Virginia’s Regional Vision Rehabilitation Referral Center for Low Vision patients.

Dr. Thomas Salmon specializes in research on optics of the human eye and vision. Past research projects studied corneal topography, aberrometry (wavefront sensing), contact lens optics, accuracy of instruments designed to measure the eye's aberrations and contrast sensitivity. Dr. Salmon is currently investigating the range of higher-order aberrations seen in normal eyes. This will help doctors, who are beginning to measure higher-order aberrations in clinical practice, to interpret data and differentiate between eyes with normal and abnormal optics. He also works in cooperation with the US Army and US Navy in evaluating optical and visual performance of pilots following refractive surgery. Dr. Salmon is advising students who are investigating the correlation between retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and corneal thickness, which is important in the diagnosis of glaucoma. Dr. Salmon is an author of three book chapters, and 24 journal articles or technical reports. He also reviews articles for numerous vision research and optometry and ophthalmology journals.