Dr. E. Eugenie Hartmann attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, graduating in 1973 with an AB in Psychology. She received her MA in 1976 from Claremont Graduate School. Her thesis research on the Development of Rotatory Vestibular Nystagmus in Human Infants was conducted at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Insitutue in the laboratory of Edward M. Ornitz, MD under the supervision of Constance W. Atwell, PhD. She received her PhD degree in Applied Biopsychology from the University of New Orleans in 1987 under the supervision of James G. May, PhD. Her dissertation research entitled “Infant Temporal Vision: A Transient Affair” was conducted at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Department of Ophthalmology in New Orleans, Louisiana.
She joined the UAB faculty in December 2003 after traversing the country. In addition to her degree training, she held a post-doctoral position at the University of Washington in Seattle, was a Research Investigator at Lighthouse International in New York City, and Professor of Optometry at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her background is a combination of Developmental and Experimental Psychology merging into Vision Sciences. She has extensive experience in both behavioral and electrophysiological testing of vision with infants and young children for clinical as well as basic research purposes. More specifically, Dr. Hartmann participated in several studies on the impact of nutritional supplements in infant formulas on early visual development.
One project with Ross Labs demonstrated the effectiveness of supplementing formulas with long-chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids (DHA and AA) for preterm infants. Dr. Hartmann’s recent interests have led her into the realm of Public Health. Specifically, she has been involved in several national projects on the implications of studies in vision sciences with regard to the need for early identification of vision problems in preschool children and the application of clinical protocols for improvement of early referrals.
In 1998 she coordinated a panel discussion on Vision Screening in Preschool Children sponsored jointly by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Department of Human and Health Services (MCHB) and the National Eye Institute (NEI). She also served on the Advisory Panel for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for their follow-up project: Project Universal Preschool Vision Screening (PUPVS). She has been involved with the development of two new vision screening devices and is currently a clinical site for a Phase II SBIR grant funded through NEI. She will serve as the Acuity Testing Coordinating Center for the Infant Aphakia Treatment Study, Principal Investigator, Dr. Scott Lambert of Emory University. Dr. Hartmann is an active research member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and Vision Sciences Society (VSS) and serves on the Pediatric Advisory Board for the national offices of Prevent Blindness America.