Time to get voting

A high calibre of nominations were received across all of this year’s 11 categories, and the AOP now calls on you, the profession, to vote and decide on the winners. 

Voting is now open and closes at midnight on Sunday, 18 December.

Now in its sixth year, the awards is headline sponsored by Alcon and celebrates the outstanding talent of practitioners and organisations, as well as the contributions they have made to the profession over the last 12 months. 

Having grown year-on-year since its launch, the 2017 awards ceremony will take place in London on 5 February at 100% Optical for the first time ever. 

Moving to a larger venue offers practitioners the opportunity to attend the awards ceremony, with individual and table tickets available to purchase.

"Now in its sixth year, the awards celebrate outstanding talent and contributions to the profession"

While 11 award categories are open to public vote, the winner of the special Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Alcon, will be selected by the AOP’s chief executive, Henrietta Alderman, and its chairman, Kevin Thompson. The recipient will be revealed during the gala dinner and ceremony.    

A new panel of judges was selected this year, with a number of cross-sector experts chosen to represent all areas of the profession. The judges include: AOP head of education and OT clinical editor, Dr Ian Beasley, optometrist and managing director of Cameron Optometry, Ian Cameron, president of the Association of Dispensing Opticians, Fiona Anderson, senior lecturer at Cardiff University, Dr Maggie Woodhouse; head of the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Bradford, Professor Ed Mallen, reader in optometry and physiological optics and Aston University, Dr Leon Davies, lecturer at the University of Bradford, Dr Andrew Logan, optometrist and owner of Tompkins Knight & Son, Brian Tompkins, AOP professional adviser, Geoff Roberson, AOP clinical and regulatory officer, Henry Leonard, and OT clinical editor, multimedia, Ceri Smith-Jaynes.

Get to know the nominees

OT will profile all shortlisted nominees in a bumper December edition in order to assist readers in deciding who to vote for in each category. Full profiles will also be published on the AOP’s website over the coming month. 

For more information, to vote and to book tickets, visit the AOP Awards page. Votes can be cast online, as well as by post.

The shortlist