Dr. P. Sarita Soni has been selected to serve as Interim Dean of IU Optometry starting August 1, 2008.

IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz has announced the selection of Dr. P. Sarita Soni as interim dean of the IU School of Optometry. Soni is IU Vice Provost for Research and Professor of Optometry. She will continue to serve IU as the Vice Provost for Research.

"Dr. Soni's leadership in the School of Optometry and on the campus means she can quickly form a team to lead the school during this transition year," Bantz said. "As an optometrist, as a teacher, as a researcher, and as an administrator she has the tools to support the clinical and research missions of the school."

"Dr. Soni has superb administrative skills, and she is eager to support the clinical, research, and teaching missions of the School of Optometry," said Karen Hanson, Provost and Executive Vice President for IU Bloomington. "It is her own academic home, and because of her devotion to it, she is taking on the interim deanship, even as she retains her post as the Vice Provost for Research . . . ."

Soni holds an Ophthalmic Optics degree from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and both OD and a MS in pathology from Indiana University. She has served in numerous roles including Associate Dean for Research at the School of Optometry and the Co-Director of the Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research (BCOR). Soni is committed to a team-leadership approach that will help build the "bench strength" of the school.

Soni's research focuses on cornea and contact lenses as well as the development and correction of refractive errors. She has conducted and directed a number of investigations at the BCOR over the past ten years. Dr. Soni has worked with contact lens and ophthalmic lens companies, developing programs to encourage industry to partner with the center's expertise in clinical trials. Under her direction, the center refined objective clinical procedures to objectively measure visual function. Soni led the center's efforts to develop quality of life and quality of vision instruments used in clinical trials to evaluate new ophthalmic devices. These developments resulted in numerous industry-funded clinical trials for new vision devices. Soni has worked internally to bring together students and faculty to participate in investigations. Dr. Soni is currently funded by NIH and is a co-investigator on the IU-PU NIH funded Clinical Translational Scientist Award (CTSA).

Dr. Soni is a diplomate of the Cornea and Contact Lens Section of the American Academy of Optometry, served on the Board of American Academy of Optometry, is an elected fellow of the National Academies of Practice, and a member of the American Optometric Association's Council on Research. She has served as a voting member on the FDA's Ophthalmic Devices panel and as a member of the NIH National Advisory Eye Council.

Soni succeeds Gerald Lowther who served as dean since 1998.