The Society is sad to announce that member Professor Evelyne Sernagor passed away on 2 March 2025. She was a leader and advocate for vision research and the community.

Professor Sernagor completed her PhD in neurophysiology at the Hebrew University, Israel, in 1988. She completed two postdoctoral positions in the US, working in the labs of M. O’Donovan (NIH) and N. Grzywacz (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute). This inspired her interest in spontaneous activity in motor and retinal neurons. In 1995, she became Professor of Retinal Neuroscience at the Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, UK. Her inquisitive nature and imagination aided her research in biotechnology, neuroscience and physiology to investigate retinal development and repair in disease. She studied ganglion cell development and retinal human organoids, going on to develop cell-transplantation strategies to restore vision.

She will be remembered by friends, colleagues and students as an inspirational neuroscientist and compassionate human being, who dedicated her time and efforts to teaching the next generation of neuroscientists and making the field accessible to all. She mentored early-career neuroscientists in South Africa and Nigeria for 17 years with the International Brain Research Organization.