Dr. Jason Turuwhenua is a Research Fellow who works between The University of Auckland’s Auckland Bioengineering Institute and the Department of Optometry and Vision Science. He is the principal investigator on the project Whatukura: A bioengineered model of the human eye. Jason is interested in how engineering methods might be applied to problems in vision. At present he is working on developing 'the virtual eye', a physics-based system for investigating eye disease. In 2003 he won the National Māori Academic Excellence Award.