Dr Merle Fernandes

Dr Merle Fernandes is the Network Director - Finance and Accounts, and is also the Director of LVPEI’s Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad - Kallam Anji Reddy Campus. A sought after cataract and refractive surgeon, she was earlier the Director of LVPEI’s tertiary campus in Visakhapatnam - GMR Varalakshmi campus - from 2008 to June 2021, and also Medical Director of the Mohsin Eye Bank located at the campus. She is best known for her work in the area of corneal infections and corneal diseases affecting children.

Dr Fernandes completed her under-graduate and post-graduate training at Goa Medical College, Goa, and did a fellowship in Cornea and Anterior Segment at LVPEI, Hyderabad. Dr Fernandes joined LVPEI as a tenured faculty in 2002 and subsequently as full-time faculty in 2005. Later, she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Ocular Surface Immunology under the mentorship of Professor Reza Dana at Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Dr Fernandes has a keen interest in research, and has widely published in international and national peer reviewed journals, and has presented several papers in India and abroad. She is a reviewer for several journals like the British Journal of Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, Cornea and Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. She is actively involved in the Cornea fellowship training program and has mentored several budding corneal surgeons.

A fitness enthusiast, Dr Fernandes enjoys swimming and playing badminton. She also loves travelling abroad and has combined her love for teaching and traveling by spending some time with the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, imparting cataract surgical skills in underdeveloped countries particularly in Africa. In her spare time, she can be found curled up with a fiction novel.