Sivak and his collaborators and graduate students, have published over 230 articles on the refractive components, optical aberrations and accommodative (focusing) mechanisms of the vertebrate eye. He has also developed and patented a novel lens organ culture and scanning optical system designed to use abattoir supplied tissue to measure toxicological ocular sensitivity as an alternative to the use of live animals

He has received a number of awards and distinctions as a result of his research. These include the Fry Award of the American Association of Optometry

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002 and he received an award for excellence in graduate supervision from the University of Waterloo in 2006. He was also recently awarded the title of University Professor by the University of Waterloo for exceptional scholarly achievement.