Dr Shah Farez Othman

Assistant Professor Dr Shah Farez Bin Othman was born in Petaling Jaya, Selangor on 26th February 1976. His earlier schooling years were spent at the Saint John Primary School in Kuala Lumpur, then Sekolah Menengah Sains Raja Tun Azlan Shah (SERATAS) in Taiping, followed by the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Matriculation Programme, both at Sekolah Menengah Sains Sultan Mahmud (SESMA), Kuala Terengganu and Pusat Matrikulasi UKM, Kuala Pilah. He subsequently furthered his study in the UKM having BOptom (Hons) in 1999. Upon graduation, he had been working as an optometrist at an optical chain store in Seremban, staff optometrist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, and resident optometrist cum practice manager at the Grand Eye Care Centre, the Southern Hospital, Melaka. In June 2004, Dr Shah joined the academia at the International University College of Technology Twintech, Kuala Lumpur as a lecturer in optometry and pioneered staff for the first optometry programme in a private university in Malaysia. He pursued his higher degree at UKM in 2005 on a part-time basis and obtained a Master of Health Science by research in 2010. He is a registered optometrist with the Malaysian Optical Council (MOC) since 1999 and a Fellow of the Association of Malaysian Optometrists since 2007. In 2012 he went to the University Putra Malaysia, Serdang to do his PhD in Applied Optics also on a part-time basis. He successfully obtained his PhD in 2020 and joined International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) In July 2021. Prior to joining IIUM, he was also a Senior Lecturer in Optometry and pioneered staff for the optometry programme at SEGi University from October 2010 to June 2018. He was also the Head of School and Assistant Professor of Optometry at UCSI University from July 2018 to June 2021. Dr Shah has 18 years of experience at all educational levels as a lecturer, researcher, manager, and including 23 years as a consultant optometrist. His professional training and research have been in the areas of Clinical Optometry, Ocular Imaging, and Applied Optics. His current interest is in Applied Optics which includes Eye Model Construction. He has also been involved in committees and consultancy for a new programme, curriculum reviewers, assessors for the academic staff promotion at King Saud University, reviewer for peer-reviewed scientific journals, internal grant reviewer, and assessors for postgraduate Master's and PhD. His other research endeavours and professional competence is in visual performance in sport and ocular structural changes in myopia. Dr Shah is also an Adjunct Lecturer at UCSI University teaching in the areas of entrepreneurship & ethics, and optics for optometry. Dr Shah is currently an Assistant Professor of Optometry at Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences (KAHS), IIUM, Kuantan Campus. He is also a Consultant Optometrist at IIUM Optometry Clinic, which is the University eye clinic. Since 2021, Dr Shah is an Associate Editor, of the International Journal of Allied Health Sciences, and a Committee Member for KAHS Innovative Teaching and Simulation Learning. He is also the coordinator for IIUM Continuing Optometric Education. At the national level, Dr Shah serves as an Executive Member, of the Malaysian Academy of Optometry, and a member of the Professional Qualifying Assessment (PQA), Malaysian Optical Council which is under the Malaysian Ministry of Health.