Judged by top names and industry experts, the Icon Awards is one of the most prestigious prizes in the design calendar. This year's Icon Awards took place on 5th December at Oval Space in east London.

"I am delighted that we have been recognised not only for innovative product development but also the social impact of our work in the developing world", said Joshua Silver, head of the Centre for Vision in the Developing World. "Giving children in school the glasses they need to see the blackboard clearly will help their education and economic potential, which will ultimately enhance their society as a whole."

See more at the Icon Awards 2013 web site.

Alongside such medical break-throughs as the development of penicillin and the theory of the circulation of blood, the exhibition features Joshua Silver's pioneering development of self-refraction, the process whereby a wearer corrects his or her own refractive error using self-adjustable lenses, and his development of the original 'Adspecs' self-adjustable glasses.

"I am honoured to appear alongside such giants of medicine as Chain and Florey [awarded, with Alexander Fleming, the 1945 Nobel Prize in medicine for the development of penicillin]", said Joshua Silver, head of the Centre for Vision in the Developing World. "I hope that over time self-refraction will fulfil its potential to help over a billion people achieve the clear eyesight that would otherwise be unavailable to them, earning its place as a truly great medical discovery."

'Great Medical Discoveries: 800 years of Oxford innovation', opens on November 22 and runs until May 18, 2014. The Bodleian Library is open daily and admission is free. Learn more here.

"The Centre for Vision in the Developing World has had some extremely talented engineers and designers working on our Child Vision Glasses, and our challenge now is to get these glasses to the tens of millions of children whose education is hampered by their inability to see a blackboard in class clearly - a problem our self-refraction glasses will solve."

Designs of the Year is the Design Museum's annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward-looking design of all kinds, from around the world. The exhibition of nominated designs at the Design Museum in London ends on July 7.

The nominated designs fall into seven categories: architecture, digital, fashion, furniture, graphics, product and transport. They can be designed by a practice, team or individual. Projects are nominated by an independent group of trusted industry experts from four main groupings: practicing designers and architects, curators from other institutions, academics and tutors from design schools, and journalists and writers.

A winner from each category is selected by an international jury and overall winner from the category winners is awarded the Design of the Year. All the nominations can be seen at the museum in the Designs of the Year exhibition.

The nominated designs fall into seven categories: architecture, digital, fashion, furniture, graphics, product and transport. They can be designed by a practice, team or individual. Projects are nominated by an independent group of trusted industry experts from four main groupings: practicing designers and architects, curators from other institutions, academics and tutors from design schools, and journalists and writers.

A winner from each category is selected by an international jury and overall winner from the category winners is awarded the Design of the Year. All the nominations can be seen at the museum in the Designs of the Year exhibition.

The Child Vision initiative, the result of a long-standing collaboration between Dow Corning and the CVDW, was formally launched in March 2011 to create an innovative new way to help provide vision correction to children in the developing world.

Recently published academic research demonstrates that most children and teenagers aged 12 to 18 are able to successfully achieve very good vision correction using self-adjustable glasses.

"Using our self-adjustable glasses, we want to help the more than 100 million young people in the developing world who need vision correction to see clearly," said Prof. Josh Silver, founder and director of the CVDW, and inventor of the world's first universal fluid-filled adjustable eyeglasses. "By combining the expertise of the CVDW and Dow Corning, we have been able to create a new design of self-adjustable glasses which are more suited to children aged 12-18."

With the help of local teachers and translators, a team led by the CVDW recently traveled to India to capture valuable insights from nearly 600 school-aged children. The results of the week-long assessment were used to refine the design features of the new prototype to maximize their appeal to this audience.

"The intention in designing the new glasses was to create a product that is simple and intuitive to use, fits teenagers well, and looks good, while at the same time being low cost to manufacture," said Maja Kecman, head of design at CVDW, who was responsible for the development of the new glasses.

The new glasses, filled with a Dow Corning optical silicone fluid, are designed specifically for the needs of myopic (nearsighted) teenagers. With a power range of 0 to -5 diopters, users are able to adjust the lens power by turning a dial on each arm. This adds or removes the fluid until the user can see most clearly. The adjusters are then detached, leaving a conventional-looking pair of glasses.

In addition to improved design, key elements of the Child Vision initiative are to ensure the design can be scaled up to mass-production levels and to establish programmes for distribution and instruction.

"Achieving the prototype is a great step forward but in order to be successful, we have to get them to the young people who need them," said James Stephenson, global healthcare market manager and leader of the Child Vision initiative at Dow Corning. "Our collaboration with the CVDW is about using vision correction to improve the quality of life of young people in the developing world. The CVDW now needs to scale up the glasses to sustainable production levels in order that children can ultimately benefit from this technology."

The next phase of the Child Vision initiative will see clinical trials of the prototype, leading to the production and distribution of the first 50,000 pairs of the new glasses planned to start in 2013. CVDW is in active discussions with several other potential funding and distribution partners. The aim is to distribute glasses through school-based programmes, in which students correct their vision under the supervision of their teacher. Initial deployments of the new glasses are planned for China, India and Indonesia, where the prevalence of refractive error is highest.

To learn more about Child Vision, visit www.child-vision.org.

Join the Child Vision discussion on Twitter by following #ChildViSion

Editor's Note
Prof. Silver's original self-adjustable eyeglasses contain special lenses composed of clear membranes that are filled with Dow Corning silicone fluid. By adding or removing fluid via a removable syringe and dial attached to the eyeglasses' frame, wearers can modify the curvature of the lenses and therefore the strength of their eyeglasses. More than 40,000 adults in the developing world have already benefited from this revolutionary technology.

About Dow Corning
Dow Corning (dowcorning.com) provides performance-enhancing solutions to serve the diverse needs of more than 25,000 customers worldwide. A global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, Dow Corning offers more than 7,000 products and services via the company's Dow Corning® and XIAMETER® brands. Dow Corning is equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Incorporated. More than half of Dow Corning's annual sales are outside the United States. Dow Corning's global operations adhere to the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care® initiative, a stringent set of standards designed to advance the safe and secure management of chemical products and processes.

About the Centre for Vision in the Developing World
The Centre for Vision in the Developing World (CVDW), based in Oxford, UK, was founded to study the clinical and practical issues in providing vision correction in the developing world. It has a particular focus on self-refraction and was founded by Prof. Joshua Silver, inventor of the world's first universal fluid-filled adjustable eyeglasses.

"There are approximately 100 million children in the developing world with vision problems that need correcting. In the developed world there is one optometrist for roughly every 5,000 people. In the developing world, there is one for every 1 million people," said Prof. Josh Silver, Oxford University physicist, founder and director of the CVDW, and inventor of the world's first universal fluid-filled adjustable eyeglasses. "Through this collaboration with Dow Corning, CVDW can now expand our efforts to effectively put eyeglasses in the hands of the children who need them."

The goal of CVDW, a United Kingdom-based community interest company, is to improve vision for people in the developing world who lack access to adequate vision correction.

"This collaboration between Dow Corning and the Centre for Vision in the Developing World will combine our expertise to help bring improved vision correction to children in desperate need," said Stephanie A. Burns, Chairman and CEO of Dow Corning.

Through Child Vision, Dow Corning will work with CVDW to explore how self-adjustable eyeglasses can be designed specifically for the needs of children so that the glasses are able to withstand daily use, are light weight and look more appealing, which will increase the likelihood that they will be worn. Another key element of the initiative will be to ensure the design can be scaled up to mass-production levels, which includes lowering the cost of production.

"Dow Corning fluids played a critical role in Prof. Silver's pioneering self-adjustable glasses, which have already provided vision correction to approximately 40,000 people in more than 20 countries," said James Stephenson, Dow Corning global healthcare marketing manager and leader of the Child Vision initiative at Dow Corning. "We are excited to further our relationship with the CVDW and to see how our silicon-based technologies can now improve vision correction and the quality of life for children in the developing world."

Editor’s Note
Prof. Silver's original self-adjustable eyeglasses contain special lenses composed of clear membranes that are filled with Dow Corning silicone fluid. By adding or removing fluid via a removable syringe and dial attached to the eyeglasses' frame, wearers can modify the curvature of the lenses and therefore the strength of their eyeglasses. More than 40,000 adults in the developing world have already benefited from this revolutionary technology.

About Dow Corning
Dow Corning (dowcorning.com) provides performance-enhancing solutions to serve the diverse needs of more than 25,000 customers worldwide. A global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, Dow Corning offers more than 7,000 products and services via the company's Dow Corning® and XIAMETER® brands. Dow Corning is equally owned by The Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Incorporated. More than half of Dow Corning's annual sales are outside the United States. Dow Corning's global operations adhere to the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care® initiative, a stringent set of standards designed to advance the safe and secure management of chemical products and processes.

About the Centre for Vision in the Developing World
The Centre for Vision in the Developing World (CVDW), based in Oxford, UK, was founded to study the clinical and practical issues in providing vision correction in the developing world. It has a particular focus on self-refraction and was founded by Prof. Joshua Silver, inventor of the world's first universal fluid-filled adjustable eyeglasses.