Founding director of the CORE, Desmond Fonn, recently received the Donald R. Korb Award for Excellence from the Contact Lens and Cornea Section of the American Optometric Association. This award is presented annually to an individual who has been a true innovator in the field of contact lenses and anterior segment disease – a description that certainly suits Des, who developed the CORE from a three-person operation into a thriving hub of basic and applied research over the course of two decades.