Steve Daras

Steven Daras has been in the optical field since 1975, having managed a national low vision clinic and assistant manager for a national ophthalmic instruments division for the same company.

He also ran a successful private practice for 16 years. In that time, he worked closely with ophthalmologists working in their practices as a clinical assistant as well as being the assistant in surgery on many cataract operations.

Steve has been teaching optics for many years having previously taught the Diploma in Optical Dispensing at the Guild of Dispensing Opticians from 1978 until its closure. He then taught and developed resources for the Certificate IV Optical Dispensing at TAFE NSW since 1995 and is the optical dispensing course coordinator for TAFE Digital. He is the only teacher who currently teaches either directly or indirectly every optical dispensing student in Australia, New Zealand, and in the United Kingdom.

He has written and/or reviewed every major optical dispensing resource in NSW since the 1984 and in 2014 co-authored the textbooks Practical Optical Dispensing (3rd edn) with David Wilson and Practical Optical Workshop (2nd edition) with David Wilson and Steve Stenersen. These textbooks are used by every optical dispensing course in the countries previously mentioned. These textbooks are also recommended reading in many optometry courses.

Steve is currently a member of Standards Australia’s SF-006 Eye and Face Protection Committee.