Occuity team receives Royal Academy of Engineering award

A team of six people from Occuity have received an award from the Royal Academy of Engineering for their work on a handheld non-contact optical pachymeter to support glaucoma diagnosis.

The 2025 Colin Campbell Mitchell Award is given to an engineer or small team who made the greatest contribution to the advancement of any field of UK engineering within the past four years.

The award recipients from Occuity included: Dr Robin Taylor, co-founder and chief technical officer; James Reynolds, chief optical engineer; Sharon Branch, chief operating officer; Shahin Lad, senior firmware and electronics engineer; Martin Newman, senior manufacturing technician, and Jamie Serjeant, lead engineer.

Serjeant was also a recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2024 Young Engineer of the Year award.

The team were recognised for the invention of the PM1 pachymetry device, designed to measure corneal thickness without touching the eye.

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Occuity showcases PM1 Pachymeter

The handheld, non-contact device is set to go on sale in the UK later this year

Luke Logan, chair of the Academy’s awards committee, said: “The PM1 is both a breakthrough in glaucoma diagnostics and a celebration of engineering ingenuity.”

“By eliminating the need for anaesthetic drops and bulky equipment, it redefines how early detection can be delivered. This is especially true in places that don’t have access to expensive equipment, which now have a more accessible way to stave off the blight of glaucoma in their community,” Logan said.

The Academy acknowledged the challenges that the Occuity team overcame in designing the device.

This included miniaturisation of complex optical systems, development of high-speed lens scanning, and advanced algorithms to achieve reliable results.

Occuity also had to establish a medical device-certified manufacturing facility in Reading to produce the devices.

The PM1 device is available in nearly 20 countries and designers are developing the platform for other ophthalmic conditions.

Dan Daly, co-founder and chief executive officer of Occuity, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this award. When we founded Occuity in 2019, we had a vision to develop pain-free testing to enable the prevention rather than just the treatment of a wide range of chronic health conditions. The first step on the journey is the PM1-meter to support the diagnosis of glaucoma.”

Daly recognised the work of the Occuity team, sharing: “They not only excel as individuals but also, when acting together, have been able to achieve extraordinary results.”

“Winning the Colin Campbell Mitchell Award is a recognition both of their capabilities and all that they achieved in a very short space of time,” he added.

Pictured (left to right): James Reynolds, Shashin Lad, Sharon Brand, Martin Newman, Jamie Serjeant.