Dennis Levi is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with appointments in the School of Optometry, The Graduate Group in Vision Science, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. His research focuses on how we see form and depth, and how these are impacted by abnormal early visual development, particularly amblyopia and strabismus.   Levi’s research has been funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) since 1976. He has received numerous awards including the Glenn Fry Award, the Garland Clay Award and the Prentice Medal from the American Academy of Optometry, and most recently the 2016 Edgar D. Tillyer Award from the Optical Society of America, for his groundbreaking work on treating amblyopia.

You can learn more about Dr. Levi’s research on amblyopia and how virtual reality is being usedto treat amblyopia and improve stereo vision by listening to the interview on the BroadEye Podcast at: http://broadeye.org/levi/

The overarching goal of my research is to understand how the brain combines the two eyes’ inputs to form 2D and 3D images. My long-term goal is to develop a unified model that explains all binocular functions in humans. So far, I have developed a model to provide a unified explanation of binocular contrast, luminance, and phase (position) combination, and binocular contrast discrimination over a wide range of conditions using both first- and second-order stimuli. Recently, I proposed a unified model for binocular fusion and depth perception and will combine it with 2D binocular model to predict 3D binocular vision.

Ângela Tomaz is a postdoctoral researcher at the Levi Lab. Her current research focuses on suppression and stereopsis, as well as appearance in Amblyopia. Prior to Berkeley, Ângela was a PhD student at the University of Lille (SCALab, CNRS UMR 9193) in France. During her PhD, Ângela was a member of the Psychophysics of Appearance Laboratory (PALab) working with Dr. Bilge Sayim and Dr. Wolf Harmening (AOVision Lab) on appearance and performance at the limits of spatial vision.

Samantha has been a research assistant in the Levi Lab since 2015 and is currently an optometry student at UC Berkeley, where she serves as the Co-President for the Class of 2023. Over the years in the lab, she has conducted multiple research projects focusing on topics ranging from stereoscopic vision, eye movements during visual search, and vergence-accommodation disparities within virtual reality headsets. After graduation, she plans to pursue a residency and aspires to bridge her interests in research and teaching with her clinical understanding of vision.

Julien is currently an optometry student at UC Berkeley who joined Levi Lab through the NEI T35 Summer Research Program. Within the lab, Julien is involved in examining the oculomotor behavior of amblyopes during visual search tasks and how it affects their behavioral performance. Julien is most interested in potential viable clinical treatments for amblyopia that has yet to be found through research.

Annie is currently a first-year optometry student at UC Berkeley. She just joined the lab and she’s excited to learn more about the potential clinical treatments for vision problems associated with perception and binocular vision.  In addition, she is interested in how virtual reality can be applied to treatment options. 

Hilary is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology. In the lab, she is interested in topics such as amblyopic vision, stereopsis, and the use of virtual reality to study perceptual learning. She plans to pursue medical school after graduation and is excited about continuing research in neuroscience and vision.

Taylor Lui is a third-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Molecular Cell Biology and Psychology. She’s interested in learning about the complexities of amblyopia and hopes to help leaders in the field translate this knowledge into solutions to improve vision in patients with amblyopia. Outside of the lab, Taylor enjoys working as an EMT, playing the trombone in the Cal Band, and swimming!

Kiara is a third year undergraduate student majoring in Molecular Biology with a minor in global public health who has a keen interest in pursuing ophthalmology. Kiara is interested in learning about the clinical manifestation of amblyopia and how it can be improved in patients. Apart from working at the lab she enjoys drawing and painting.

Soumyadeep is a second-year undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Data Science. In the lab, he is excited to apply programming and computational skills to the study of attention in amblyopia.

Kaneiya is a second-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Bioengineering. He is excited to be involved in the Levi Lab’s research regarding appearance in amblyopia and the applications of machine learning to the world of vision science. In the future, he plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in ophthalmology. Outside of the lab, Kaneiya enjoys swimming and photography.

Sasha is a fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in Integrative Human Biology. Currently, she is focused on researching the compression of visual space in amblyopia. With a strong interest in pursuing ophthalmology in the future, she is excited to deepen her understanding of the clinical applications of her research. Outside of the lab, Sasha enjoys expressing her artistic side through painting and picking up various musical instruments.

Matteo is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Public Health with an interest in optometry following graduation. He has been a research assistant in the Levi Lab since 2023 working with projects involving the focus of amblyopic patients relating to microsaccades. Outside of the lab, Matteo is involved in a health advocacy club on campus (CaHPSA at Berkeley) and enjoys playing volleyball.

Niveditha Sukesh is a second-year undergraduate student, studying Molecular and Cell Biology and minoring in Public Health. She is fascinated by how form and depth perception are degraded by abnormal visual experiences, especially in amblyopia. She is excited to help contribute to the Levi Lab by measuring patients’ vision and depth perception! After graduation, she plans to pursue research and medical school, specializing in ophthalmology or neurology.

Michelle is an undergraduate student majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. She is interested in understanding more about amblyopia and its effects on patients' depth perception. In the lab, she is excited to help research about the mechanisms of normal and amblyopic spatial vision, as well as working with the team at the Levi Lab.

Hong is an undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Data Science at UC Berkeley. She is interested in exploring the brain and applying her research skills in the lab. 

Artashes graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Human Biology. His current research focus centers on the utilization of the EyeLink Eye Tracker in amblyopic spatial vision and oculomotor behavior. He is devoted towards advancing the field of ophthalmic medicine and research, with a specific emphasis on the investigation and treatment of amblyopia. His ultimate aspiration is to contribute to the integration of effective clinical research treatments for adulthood amblyopia into standard medical practice.

Name

R. Manny

Y.L. Yap

L. Baitch

S. Steinman

T. Banton

S. Waugh

H. Wang

S. Tripathy

S. Chen

V. Sharma

L. Reich

E. Wong

S. Song

C. Gambacorta

A. Godinez

A. Aizenman

L. Spano

Trainee

L. Baitch

T. Banton

B. Beard

A. Mussap

H. Akutsu

C. Yu

A. Popple

P. Neri

J. Ding

M. Nahum

E. Yang

C. Huh

A. Chopin

O. Yehezkel

M. Lev

R. Li

S. Kwon

Current Position

Chief, Neurosensory Services, Dept. Ophthal., Sinai Hospital, Detroit, MI

Research Asst. Prof., Univ. of Virginia

Administrator, NASA Ames

Professor & Deputy Head of School, Deakin University

Professor, Iwate University, Japan

Professor, Peking University

Practicing psychotherapist

CNRS Researcher, Ecole Normale Seperieure, Paris, France.

Research Specialist, UC Berkeley.

Assistant Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, School of OT.

User Experience Researcher, PROS, Houston, TX.

Post doc, UC Irvine.

Post doc, Universite Paris Sorbonne, France.

Lecturer, Bar-Ilan University; Chief Scientific Officer, NovaSight, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Lecturer, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Associate Professor, NSU College of Optometry

Research Scientist, Exponent.

Scholar

Alex Toet

Frank Kooi

Jussi Saarinen 

Uri Polat

Paul McGraw

David Whitaker

Brendan Barrett

Susana Chung

Lei Wei

Ken Nakayama

Srimant Tripathy

Ben Webb

Santiago Martin

Ângela Gomes Tomaz

Ainhoa Molina Martin

Jocelyn Tao

Home Institution

TNO, Soesterberg, Holland

TNO, Soesterberg, & University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Holland

University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, CA

University of Nottingham, U.K.

Bradford University, U.K.

Bradford University, U.K.

University of California, Berkeley

University of Central Florida

Harvard University

Bradford University, U.K.

University of Nottingham, U.K.

University of Oviedo, Spain

University of Lille, Lille, France

University of Alicante, Spain

University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Ashley Tsai

Riad Ghandour

Nam Do

Harkeerat Singh

Minju Shim

Xiaowen Yuan

Julian Miguel Tuazon

David Spitz

Joshua Lu

Akhil Agarwal

Jessica Situ

Dhruv Agarwal

Leila Zeinab Afifi

YuYi Lu

Glenda Berman

Inning Chen

Molly Duong

Erwin Wong

Ashley Craven

Molly Duong

Jill Lobinger

Charlie Ngo

Kenneth Tran

Thomas Wu

Susan Kim

Alyson Kishi

Ivy Liu

Allison Prevost

Kevin Yuen