Dr. Twa was appointed Dean of the University of Houston College of Optometry on June 1, 2019. He previously served as a faculty member at the college from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019, Dr. Twa served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry. His undergraduate training in biology was completed at UC San Diego and his clinical doctoral training in optometry was completed at UC Berkeley. He practiced for more than 10 years in the department of ophthalmology at UC San Diego before pursuing a Ph.D. in machine learning, data sciences, and biomedical image analysis at the Ohio State University. Dr. Twa currently serves as a grant reviewer for the NIH/NEI, he is a member of the AOA Council on Research, the AAO Research Committee, and is the current Editor in Chief of Optometry and Vision Science.
He has a longstanding interest in biomedical imaging, image analysis and using machine learning methods to improve clinical decision making. His current research is related to the development of new imaging technology for sensing tissue biomechanics (optical coherence elastography) and he is also working to address adherence behavior in glaucoma.