Dr. Sayan Basu is the Prof. D Balasubramanian Chair of Eye Research, and the Director of Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad, India. A clinician-scientist and a key opinion leader in the field of Cornea and Ocular Surface, Dr. Basu is internationally recognized for his innovative breakthroughs in corneal stem cell therapy. His research focusses on dry eye disease, scarless corneal wound healing, biomaterials including corneal 3-D printing, and stem cells. Dr. Basu did his long-term cornea and anterior segment fellowship at LVPEI, and his research training in stem cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, USA. Dr Basu has received the Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and serves on several editorial boards. He has published 234 scientific papers, and his work is highly cited by researchers in the ophthalmology and visual sciences community.

Associate Professor Agar is a Glaucoma consultant at Prince of Wales and Sydney Eye Hospitals, fellowship trained in Oxford and Moorfields. He is the Chair of the RANZCO Reconciliation Working Group and Australian Ophthalmology Workforce and Services Committee, and Vice-President of the ASO.

Ashish hails from regional NSW and is familiar with the challenges accessing specialist services in the country. He has been with the Outback Eye Service of the Prince of Wales Hospital as a resident, registrar, and now Medical Director, conducting clinical and surgical visits to Bourke, and is Director of the Ophthalmology Service at Broken Hill Hospital.

A/Prof Agar was awarded a PhD for research into Glaucoma pathogenesis, with current research at UNSW spanning Indigenous health, medical education, new surgical technologies, and public health. Ashish also has an interest in international development ophthalmology as a volunteer with Sight for All in southeast Asia as well as work in India.

Dr Smita Agarwal (MBBS; FRANZCO, Grad Dip in Refrac Surg) is a comprehensive ophthalmologist with a special interest in refractive cataract surgery, complex cataract surgery including post corneal refractive cataracts, and anterior segment eye diseases. She completed her ophthalmology training at Monash Medical Centre before undertaking her advanced training in cataract surgery at the same institution. She also completed Grad diploma in Refract surgery through University of Sydney. She has vast experience with a variety of intraocular lenses available and provides customized treatment suitable to patient’s lifestyle and ocular health. She is ex- Head of Ophthalmology at Wollongong and Shellharbour Hospitals   and a visiting medical officer at various private hospitals in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven region. Dr Agarwal started her state of the art first laser center in Illawarra region where she performs refractive laser treatment including PRK/LASIK/SMILE using the latest laser platforms.  Dr Agarwal works privately in Illawarra and Shoalhaven region and holds an academic post as a Clin A/Prof at the University of Wollongong and Senior clinical lecturer at University of Sydney. She is actively involved in the teaching of medical students, registrars and general practitioners in the area.

Dr Agarwal holds a deep sense of responsibility to the community, particularly those with limited access to adequate health care, and has provided voluntary health care to underprivileged communities. She also has a keen interest in education and research, acting as a mentor for young researchers and keeping up to date in ophthalmology. She has been an invited speaker at various Ophthalmology meetings and has publications in peer reviewed journals.

Full biography coming soon.

Dr Caroline Catt is a Paediatric Ophthalmologist at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Liverpool Hospital NICU and is a Partner at Sydney Ophthalmic Specialists. She undertook her training at Sydney Eye Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada and was the Professorial Senior Registrar in 2011. She has a special interest in retinopathy of prematurity and is Principal Investigator of the Save Sight Registry Fight Childhood Blindness! ROP Module. She is the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Ophthalmology Society (ANZPOS).

Annette Clarke is Chief Services Officer at Guidedogs NSW/ACT. She has qualifications in Allied Health and Management as well as a Masters in Special Education. She has worked in the sensory impairment sector all of her career.  Her interest areas are in service design and digital inclusion for people who have disabilities, including vision impairment.

Elisa completed her BMedSci, MBBS, GradDipMed(OphthalSci) and PhD at The University of Sydney. Her PhD was laboratory-based on The Development of the Primate Retina. After she received her FRANZCO she completed the Professorial (Uveitis) and the Medical Retina Fellowships at Sydney Eye Hospital. During this time, she underwent ISCEV electrophysiology training and gained experience at Moorfields Eye Hospital Clinical Genetics department and Multimodal Imaging at Luigi Sacco Hospital, University of Milan, Italy. EC is currently a Staff Specialist at Sydney Eye & Westmead Hospital, a Senior Lecturer of the Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney.

Awarded the Claffy Ophthalmology Prize at Sydney University, Ian attributed this to two famous Ophthalmologists, Geoff Hipwell and M. B. Kappagoda.
Ian is interested in Macular Degeneration and Neuro-ophthalmology, and especially in Temporal Arteritis and Temporal Artery Biopsy.

Awarded a PhD entitled ‘The Watery Eye’ in 2007, he submitted his DSc in 2024: ‘Cataracts in Medicine for 2020: Translation of aetiology, associations, and management into surgical and visual outcomes’. This shows that 92% of cataract surgical patients should be able to see 6/4.

Ian jointly runs the bi-weekly Sydney Ophthalmology Writers Group (WG), aiming to help potential Ophthalmology trainees. WG produced 31 publications in 2022-2023. Ian has jointly authored over 325 publications.

Ian has two sons and six grandchildren. A kit drummer for 34 years, especially for church music, Ian enjoys surfboard riding, and is reasonably fluent in French, German and Italian, speaks passable English, and is currently learning Arabic.

Professor Adrian Fung is Head of the Westmead Hospital Vitreoretinal Unit and a retinal specialist. He is a Clinical Professor in Ophthalmology at Macquarie University Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Professor Fung has published over 135 international peer-reviewed journal articles and 7 book or book chapters and is the Chief and Founding Editor of the textbook www.vrsurgeryonline.com. He is Co-Chair of the RANZCO Scientific Programme Committee, immediate past Chair of the RANZCO Clinical Standards Committee, a RANZCO RACE examiner and sits on the ANZSRS Surgical Registry committee. Professor Fung has been a Principal Investigator for multiple clinical trials and was the first surgeon outside of the USA to insert the Port Delivery System. He is Editor for Retinal Cases and Brief Reports and Medical Retina Section Editor for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. He is the course convenor for Ophthalmology Updates! (www.ophthalmologyupdates.com) and an APVRS Councillor.

Professor Mark Gillies directs the Macula Research Group (MRG), University of Sydney. His Clinical Research Unit pioneered steroids for diabetic retinopathy with several seminal investigator-initiated trials, including the first for intravitreal injections for any eye disease. His Observational Studies Unit has developed internet-based software to track outcomes of treatment of macular disease, the Fight Retinal Blindness! Project, which currently has >500 active contributors in ANZ, Europe and Asia. His lab contributed data on MacTel type 2 that led to a current phase 3 trial. Mark was a founder member and chair of the Scientific Executive Committee of the MacTel Project.

Anthony Bennett Hall was born in Lesotho in Southern Africa. He worked in Zimbabwe and Lesotho as a general medical doctor for a number of years. Anthony spent 12 years in UK, training in general ophthalmology and retinal surgery. He joined CBM in 2000 as head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Tanzania. Based in Tanzania for over a decade, Anthony ran a post graduate programme in ophthalmology and a fellowship programme for Vitreo-retinal surgeons. Anthony is on the board of directors of the Fred Hollows Foundation. He is on the board of Kilimanjaro Centre of Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) Tanzania. He was previously on the Vision 2020 Australia board and served as chairman of RANZCO’s international development committee. He represented RANZCO on the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust fellowship committee. Anthony is currently a Vitreo-Retinal Surgeon in Newcastle.

Associate Professor Michael Hennessy has provided Public and Private sector eye health care for 29 years in various settings. His private practice is in Bondi Junction. He is a part time staff specialist ophthalmologist at South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, working both in the Eye Clinic at Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH) and at Sydney Eye Hospital. During his time at POWH, he has also been the Director of Ophthalmology registrar training and part of the management team for the eye clinic as well as the Outback Eye Service – an eye care initiative for western NSW managed by POWH.

For 29 years he has been a visiting Ophthalmologist at the Lightning Ridge Health Service (FIFO) and has performed Ophthalmic surgery at Bourke Hospital since 2005.

A/Prof Hennessy has had active roles in RANZCO committees over the years. In the last 20 years he has been involved with the Ophthalmology Network of the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI‐ON), a statutory authority of the NSW Ministry of Health. Of the many issues that have been the work of the ACI-ON, his passion has been to improve public sector eye care pathways including the referral of patients with cataract to NSW public hospitals.

Dr Peter Hinchcliffe is a comprehensive ophthalmologist based in Tamworth NSW. He completed undergraduate medical training at Flinders University of South Australia and ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital.

Peter and his family moved to Tamworth from Sydney in 2005, attracted by the opportunity to pursue comprehensive practice in a rural environment. He divides his time between in Tamworth and Moree and holds appointments as a Visiting Medical Officer at Tamworth Base, Tamara Private and Moree District Hospitals.

Peter’s major clinical interests are in anterior segment surgery and preseptal oculoplastics. He is Term Supervisor of the Tamworth ophthalmology training post.

Dr Megha Kaushik is an Ophthalmologist based in Sydney with appointments at both Royal Prince Alfred and Liverpool Hospital. She specialises in oculoplastic, lacrimal and orbital surgery. Her Ophthalmology training was based at Sydney Eye Hospital. She then went on to complete dual fellowships in Oculoplastic surgery from Moorfields Eye Hospital and Neuro-ophthalmology from the University Hospitals Birmingham. She is a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

A/Prof Lawlor is a glaucoma surgeon and specialist in diseases of the optic nerve. He has a PhD in bioethics from the University of Sydney and completed his ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital. He has dual fellowships in glaucoma and neuro-ophthalmology, both at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

A/Prof Lawlor is a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Sydney Eye and RPA Hospitals and a clinical academic at the University of Sydney. He is the Chief Investigator of “Fight Glaucoma Blindness!” an international registry of glaucoma outcomes that provides real world evidence of the safety and efficacy of a range of glaucoma treatments.

Dr Ridia Lim is a senior glaucoma specialist from Sydney. She is the head of the glaucoma unit at Sydney Eye Hospital. She is a senior lecturer at University of Sydney. She has held secretary and Vice Chair positions at ANZGS. She is the lead glaucoma Visionary and a Board Director for Sight For All. She is passionate about improving patient outcomes, surgical innovations, and teaching.

Dilini completed her Bachelor of Science majoring in Vision Science in 2015 from the University of New South Wales and Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney in 2017. She is currently completing her Master of Optometry at the University of Canberra. Dilini has a passion for patient care and has been working with Macular Disease Foundation for 6 years as a Health Promotion Officer, providing non-clinical support and care for patients, family members and carers. Dilini also has previous experience working with volunteers at the Cancer Council NSW offering training and support.

Dr McKeag is an oculoplastic subspecialist in Newcastle, NSW. He did orbital and oculoplastic fellowships in Manchester and Cardiff in the United Kingdom.

Full biography coming soon.

Full biography coming soon.

Full biography coming soon.

Full biography coming soon.

Full biography coming soon.

Dr Parth Shah is a Canberra-based ophthalmologist with a passion for cataract surgery, strabismus surgery and paediatric ophthalmology. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canberra and Senior Clinical Lecturer at The University of Sydney. Parth is active in clinical research and teaching, and supervises registrars at several public hospitals including Canberra Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital & Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. He is involved in several College roles, including trainee supervision and a member of the NSW branch.

Full biography coming soon.

Full biography coming soon.

Dr. Trinh is a fully certified RANZCO (Australian) ophthalmologist with extensive triple fellowship expertise specializing in cornea, cataract, refractive and pterygium surgery. She is also a fellow of the World College of Refractive Surgery and Vision Sciences and is the only accredited P.E.R.F.E.C.T. for Pterygium surgeon outside of Queensland.

Dr Trinh completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Queensland where she was awarded a scholarship in Medical Leadership and the Australian Medical Association of Queensland Harold Plant Prize for Best All Rounded Graduate. Dr Trinh completed her ophthalmology specialist training under the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists in Queensland.

She then embarked upon the world renowned two year fellowship in Cornea, External Diseases and Refractive Surgery at the University of Toronto, Canada where she developed extensive expertise in corneal transplantation techniques, pterygium surgery, ocular surface regeneration, complex anterior segment surgery and refractive surgery including LASIK, PRK, implantable collamer lenses and corneal collagen crosslinking for the treatment of keratoconus. Dr Trinh was awarded the position of Chief Fellow of the University of Toronto and subsequently received the prestigious Lim Memorial Prize for the subspecialty surgeon exemplifying best surgical and teaching skills. She then undertook a research fellowship in laser cataract surgery, corneal transplantation, dry eye treatments and ocular surface disease.

Dr Trinh was invited to join the Cornea Department at Sydney Eye Hospital as a Cornea Staff Specialist and now co-directs Australia’s only Keratoprosthesis Service. She has published over 40 scientific journal articles in national and international journals, written book chapters on advanced corneal transplantation techniques and ocular surface disease and is a regular presenter on the national and international conference circuits.

She teaches medical students, residents, registrars and fellows, is involved in the development of anterior segment curriculum teaching at the University of Toronto and contributes regularly to community optometry education. She is also a clinical associate lecturer for the University of QLD.

She currently sits on the RANZCO Executive Committee for Women in Ophthalmology and is the Secretary for the Global Research and Education Society of Ophthalmology (GERSO). She is also the Head of the Refractive Surgery Terminology Committee for the Refractive Surgical Alliance.In 2022 she became the first Australian graduate of the Physician CEO Program at Northwestern University School of Business, Chicago and in 2023 became the first Australian female to be awarded a fellowship of the World College of Refractive Surgery and Visual Sciences.

In 2024, she completed a Pterygium Fellowship under Professor Lawrie Hirst in the P.E.R.F.E.C.T. technique and is the only surgeon outside of Queensland offering this service.

Krishna Tumuluri is an Oculoplastic surgeon – adults and children, working at multiple tertiary hospitals in Sydney. He’s also a Principal Investigator for multiple thyroid eye disease trials using novel monoclonal antibodies. He is passionate about research in oculoplastic / orbital surgery and is a clinical senior lecturer at University of Sydney and Macquarie University.

Doctor Patrick Versace is a cataract and refractive surgeon with more than 25 years’ experience as a specialist ophthalmologist.  He holds appointments as a senior lecturer in Optometry at The University of New South Wales and Staff Specialist ophthalmologist at The Prince of Wales Hospital Randwick and Sydney Eye Hospital providing clinical service and registrar surgical training. 

After gaining Anaesthetic qualifications in London Dr Versace completed his specialist ophthalmology training with Sydney Eye Hospital to become a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Prior to embarking on a sub-specialty career path Dr Versace worked in a clinical teaching capacity with ‘Project Orbis’ as an ophthalmic anaesthetist travelling through Central and South America – a formative experience leading to an ongoing commitment to skills exchange teaching programs such as time in Myanmar teaching modern phaco cataract surgery.

Dr Versace has been involved in numerous clinical trials and is often an invited speaker at international meetings – most recently as Gold Medal lecturer at the Nethradhama meeting in India.  He regularly contributes to the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery giving lectures and participating in symposia.

As a member of the TGA Ophthalmic Clinical Advisory Group and specialist advisor to the ACMD (Advisory Committee for Medical Devices – Canberra) Dr Versace contributes to the safe introduction of new technologies to Australia – a fruitful use of experience gained working with the development of new IOL technologies both clinically in Australia and at a research level in Europe.

Dr Versace’s approach to practice and surgery is customised, collaborative care using appropriate and modern technology in a safe environment.

Professor Stephanie Watson is an eye surgeon specialising in cataract, corneal and laser surgery; with expertise in eye disease in adults and children. Her sub-specialty training was completed at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital, London and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, UK and her PhD was awarded for developing a novel dry eye therapy.

As an international leader in research and innovation she is appointed as a Professor at the Save Sight Institute, The University of Sydney. She has over 200 publications, holds international patents and is invited to speak internationally.

Prof Watson is Chair of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia, Editor for the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group, and a member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Clin A/Prof Andrew White B.Med.Sci(hons) MBBS PhD FRANZCO is a clinician scientist ophthalmologist at Westmead Hospital. He is Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Westmead Hospital. He was awarded First Class Honours in Medical Science in 1995 and a combined MBBS/PhD degree in 2002 from the University of Sydney. He also undertook research work at the Max Plank Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany and the State University of New York (SUNY) and the University of Cambridge. He is a consultant ophthalmologist and Head of Department at Westmead Hospital in Sydney as well as private practice. He has research affiliations with the University of Sydney, UNSW and the Westmead Institute for Medical Research where he runs a laboratory developing new treatments for glaucoma.

Dr Zeldovich specialises in cataract surgery. In particular, she is experienced in performing cataract surgery on patients with co-existing and often challenging ophthalmic diseases, such as glaucoma and retinal pathology. She has performed thousands of cataract operations and also works as a comprehensive ophthalmologist, treating a variety of eye diseases.

Dr Zeldovich graduated from Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 1997. In 2005 she was awarded the inaugural Filipic – Greer Medal and completed her ophthalmology training at Sydney Eye Hospital.

In 2006 she completed her fellowship, gaining further training in glaucoma, medical retina and cataract surgery. As a leader in her field, she continues to expand her knowledge and experience in advanced surgical techniques through conferences and collaborations with colleagues in Australia and overseas.

Dr Zeldovich is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) and appears on its Honour Roll. She is the immediate past Chair of the NSW branch of RANZCO. She was the co-conveyor for the RANZCO 2019 Congress.

She is a member of both the Australian and American Societies of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, and has been invited by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and World Ophthalmology Congress to write updates for local ophthalmologists. She has been appointed as a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney Medical School.

Dr Zeldovich has published research papers in peer-reviewed ophthalmic journals and book chapters. She sits on organising committees for scientific conferences and is involved in ophthalmic teaching. She regularly presents at Ophthalmology and GP conferences.