40 years of excellence in optometry education
The Elite School of Optometry (ESO), widely recognized in the optometry field, is one of the pioneering institutions in India offering a comprehensive four-year professional degree program—Bachelor of Optometry. Established in 1985, ESO has over four decades of excellence in optometric education and vision care.
ESO is run by Sankara Nethralaya, a premier tertiary eye care institution based in Chennai. Over the past 40 years, ESO has made significant contributions to the optometry profession, having trained 789 Bachelor of Optometry graduates, 144 Master’s graduates, and 12 PhD scholars
At ESO, education extends beyond the classroom. Students benefit from a curriculum that emphasizes strong theoretical foundations, hands-on learning, and interdisciplinary engagement. Through access to the clinical ecosystem of Sankara Nethralaya, students are exposed to a wide spectrum of ocular conditions, supporting the development of well-rounded and competent eye care professionals.
“ESO remains committed to advancing optometric education, research, and patient care in India and beyond”
Programmes Offered
ESO offers a comprehensive range of academic programs, including Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral (PhD) programs in Optometry, designed to meet global standards in education and professional practice. Smart art representation
Chairman Emeritus
Dear Students,
First of all, my heartfelt congratulations for
making it to the prestigious optometry professional degree programme offered by SASTRA
university and Elite School of Optometry, Sankara Nethralaya. I would like to remind
you that you have joined the number one ophthalmic institution in teaching, training and
research. With more than three decades of excellence in optometric education, the
institution stands tall with the alumni of the school in top positions in India, USA and
across the globe.
With the world’s largest visually impaired population of about 285 million, India direly needs optometrists. You have taken the right decision by joining this primary eye care and vision science programme with 100% employability. You now have ample opportunity to serve the needy in rural and urban across all strata and gender. You will always be in high demand!
SASTRA university is internationally acclaimed for its high-quality education in engineering, technology, basic, life and social sciences. It has received innumerable accolades from all over the world for its strict adherence to character molding academic approach. My thanks to the vice-chancellor and all key members of the board of SASTRA, who have led to the collaboration between both the institutions and sustaining support
Best regards and wishes
Dr. S.S. Badrinath
Chairman Emeritus,
Sankara Nethralaya
Chairman Emeritus
President
Vice President
Managing Director
Dr N Anuradha
Principal
Courses handled: Visual Optics, Public health and community Optometry, Monocular
Sensory Perception, Clinical training, Research Methodology
Ms S Swetha
Courses handled: Visual Optics, Clinical Examination of Visual System, Public
Health & Community Optometry, Monocular Sensory Perception, Clinical training,
Research Methodology, Optometric Diagnostics, Research Co-ordinator
Ms M Amirthaa
Courses handled: Optometric and Dispensing Optics, Ocular Diseases, Medical
Psychology, Clinical training, Research Methodology, Internship Co-ordinator
Ms C Ambika
Courses handled: Ocular Anatomy & Physiology, Practice Management, Research
methodology, Clinical training, Community Outreach - Clinical Coordinator
Ms R Subhiksha
Courses handled: Medical Psychology, Clinical Examination of Visual System,
Geriatric Optometry & Low vision care, Clinical training
Dr R Krishna Kumar
Courses handled: Medical Psychology, Geriatric Optometry & Low Vision Care
Dr A Rashima
Courses handled: Optometric and Dispensing Optics, Glaucoma, Occupational
Optometry, Research methodology
Dr K C Anand
Course handled: Ocular Diseases
Mr R Kumaran
Course handled: Practice Management
Ms S Ramya
Course handled: Ocular anatomy & Physiology, Geriatric Optometry & Low vision
care, Research methodology
Dr B Hari Shankar
Course handled: Geriatric Optometry & low vision care
Ms S Janani
Course handled: Occupational Optometry
Ms S Madhumathi
Course handled: Contact lens
Ms S Karpagavalli
Course handled: Contact lens
Ms Akshaya C Balakrishnan
Course handled: Contact lens
Dr Girish Kumar
Course handled: Binocular Vision
Mr Praveen Kumar
Course handled: Binocular Vision
Ms Sherah Benzy
Course handled: Binocular Vision
Dr Akshay Badakere
Course handled: Pediatric Optometry
Ms T Tharakeshwari
Course handled: Pediatric Optometry
Dr Sumathi Narayanan
Course handled: Communication skills for Optometrists
Dr Uma Narayanan
Course handled: Communication skills for Optometrists
Ms J Nandhini
Course handled: Clinical training
Ms S Vishnu Priya
Course handled: Glaucoma, Optometric Diagnostics
The Elite School of Optometry, located at 8, G.S.T.Road, St.Thomas Mount, is a few kilometers away from the St. Thomas Mount railway station and the Anna International airport, Chennai, India. Built in 1985, ESO and C.U.Shah Eye Hospital, units of Medical Research Foundation are in the Dr. V.G.Appukutty campus. The campus is named after Dr.V.G.Appukutty who donated the land for establishing the ESO.
The main building of ESO is situated in the cool green V.G.Appukutty campus in a vast area of 3.17 acres. This building houses all the classrooms, labs, library, seminar hall and the administrative office.
The 1500 sq. ft ESO library owes its vast collection of 4000 books and journals to the many people who have come forward to add to its collection. Prof. Jay M Enoch offered his personal library consisting of a variety of books, reference sources and journals to the Elite School and also requested many others to contribute to the ESO library, which has the biggest optometry collection in Asia.
The library is kept open on all working days (Monday to Saturday) from 10:00.a.m. to 06:00.p.m. Monthly holidays are notified on the notice board.
Ms Jayasri S
Librarian, ESO
No.8, G.S.T.Road, St.Thomas Mount, Chennai 600 016, Tamil Nadu, India
Telephone : +91 044 2234 9269, 2234 6023, E-mail : esolibrary@snmail.org
www.eso.sankaranethralaya.org
New Arrivals
ESO Book List
New arrival books
to eso library
Binocular vision
Clinical
optometry, law, ethics, etc
Clinical
optometry, primary eye care
Contact lenses
Dispensing
General medicine
Geometric
physical & physiological optics
Investigation procedure
Life science
Light
Low vision
Nutrition
Ocular
physiology, ocular pharmacology, ocular pathology
Ophthalmology eye
diseases
Optometric
instrumentation
Pediatrics & geriatrics
Psychology,
cognition, perception
Public health &
occupational optometry
Refraction
Statistics &
epidemiology
Strabismus
Vision, color
vision, visual perception
Visual optics
| Bachelor of Optometry | |
|---|---|
| Name of the Award | Course |
| Dr M M Cooper Memorial Prize | Anatomy Prize Exam |
| Dr P P Santanam Prize | Occupational Optometry |
| Dr S Narasimhan Prize | Pharmacology |
| Dr S Srinivasan Prize | Best Project |
| Dr Sumathi Narayanan Award | Communication |
| Dr Sundari Krishnamurthy Prize | Public Relations |
| Luxottica Award | Law and Optometry |
| Luxottica Excellence Award | Binocular Vision |
| Luxottica Excellence Award | Epidemiology |
| Luxottica Excellence Award | Clinical Examination of Visual System |
| Luxottica Excellence Award and Dr Revathy Srinivasan Prize | Optics |
| Luxottica Excellence Award and Dr S Ramaswamy Prize | Ocular Anatomy and Physiology |
| Luxottica Excellence Award and Sri R Sankaranarayanan Prize | Geriatric Optometry and low vision |
| Mrs Shakeroon Nissa N P Jamal Award | Optometry Clinical Excellence Award |
| Mrs Shakeroon Nissa N P Jamal Award | Optometry Clinical Excellence Award |
| Optom Irene Joseph Award | Contact Lens |
| Prof S Veeraraghavan Prize | Biostatistics |
| Prof S Veeraraghavan Prize | Mathematics |
| Prof. SRG Prize | Pediatric Optometry |
| Shree Banaskantha Palanpur Jain Association Award | Community Vision Care Service |
| Smt. Jayammal Prize | Optometric Instruments |
| Sri C N S Panicker Memorial Prize | Public Health and Community Optometry |
| Sri K Sreenivasan Prize | Glaucoma |
| Sri Narayana Gupta Prize | Visual Optics |
| Sri S M Mehta Prize | Nutrition |
| Sri Sugalchand Jain Prize | Clinical Examination |
| Sri V R Ramanatha Iyer Memorial Prize | Ocular Diseases |
| Sri V R Ramanatha Iyer Memorial Prize and Essilor Award | Optometric Optics and Dispensing Optics |
| Srimathi Pramila Singh Memorial Prize and Dr S Ramaswamy Prize | Human Anatomy and Physiology |
| Sri V Venugopal Memorial Prize and Thanuja Panicker - Naicker award | Best outgoing student of the Year |
| Master of Optometry | |
|---|---|
| Luxottica Excellence Award | Best Research Methodology |
| Smt. Alamelu Prabhakaran Memorial Prize & Sri R Sivaraman Memorial Endowment Prize | Best Research Award in Master of Optometry |
| Smt. P G Nagalakshmi w/o Shri Late K V Ramachandran Award for the Best Out Going Student of the year | Best outgoing student of the Year |
| Other Academic awards | |
|---|---|
| Sumhithaa Sriram Prize | Best student of first year |
| Smt. Nimmagadda Hemalatha Award | Best student of second year |
| Smt. Nimmagadda Hemalatha Award | Best student of third year |
| ESOAA awards | |
|---|---|
| Dr P P Santanam – Jayalakshmi Award | Best Optometrist |
| ESO Alumni Association Award | Best Research Publication |
| Dr S. Narasimhan Memorial Award | Best Research in Optometry |
| Dr (Maj) S .Srinivasan Memorial Prize | Best Senior Faculty Award |
| Dr (Maj) S .Srinivasan Memorial Prize | Best Junior Faculty Award |
