Speakers
Council Lecture
Dr Stephen Best
FRANZCO, Auckland, New Zealand
Dr Stephen Best is a graduate of Otago University, and completed ophthalmology training in Auckland/Waikato in 1990. After two years of fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia with the Glaucoma and Neuro-ophthalmology services, he returned to Auckland Hospital as a full time consultant. He now divides his time between Greenlane Clinical Centre Eye Department and Auckland Eye as a committed subspecialist. He also participates in teaching, and is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer with the University of Auckland and has been a College Physiology Examiner. He has also contributed to the Scientific Program Committee, and has served on the NZ Branch executive, being Chair for two years. Dr Best has been on College Council since 2004 and a member of the Board for 6 years, currently as Honorary Treasurer.
The Burden of Glaucoma
Sir Norman Gregg Lecture
Prof Elizabeth Engle
Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachussets, USA
Prof Elizabeth Engle is Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School and is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prof Engle earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and, prior to entering the laboratory, she trained in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, neuropathology at the Mass General Hospital, and adult and child neurology in the Harvard Longwood Training Program. Her research is dedicated to defining the genetic causes of congenital strabismus (‘misaligned eyes’). She runs a research laboratory in which she trains both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in the genetic and neuro-developmental basis of strabismus and brain development. The research has identified genes mutated in multiple complex strabismus syndromes and demonstrated that these disorders can result from errors in the growth and development of cranial motor neurons and nerves as they extend from the brainstem to the extraocular muscles. Her lab continues to define the genetic basis of additional strabismus syndromes, and generates and studies animal models to examine the roles that these genes play in development. Elizabeth teaches neurology, neuroscience, ophthalmology and genetics in both the clinical and laboratory settings, and has served on committees that set the direction for neuroscience and ophthalmology research nationally. She is a faculty affiliate of the Programs in Neuroscience and BBS at Harvard Medical School and is a faculty affiliate of the Broad Institute. Her work has been recognized by receipt of the E Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics from the Society for Pediatric Research, the Sidney Carter Award in Child Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology, and the Research Award for Vision from the Alcon Institute.
Strabismus, genetics, and the developing brain
Ida Mann Lecture
A/Prof Justine Smith
FRANZCO, Portland Oregon, USA
A/Prof Justine R. Smith is currently Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Cell & Developmental Biology, and the Schnitzer Professor of Ophthalmic Research, at Oregon Health & Science University in the United States. She is trustee for Immunology and Microbiology on the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Board, a member of the International Council of the International Ocular Inflammation Society, and representative for the American Uveitis Society on the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Council.
Dr. Smith completed ophthalmology training in South Australia, a PhD degree in ocular immunology at Flinders University, and a certificate in human investigation at Oregon Health & Science University. Her NIH-funded translational research group focuses its work on the role of the vascular endothelium in infectious and non-infectious uveitis. She is a co-investigator in other studies that have described genetic associations of uveitis and gene expression in peripheral blood leukocytes from patients with uveitis, and in multiple investigator-initiated studies of biologic agents for inflammatory eye disease. Dr. Smith is 6-times winner of the European Uveitis Patient Interest Association prizes, which are awarded annually for the leading publications in clinical and experimental uveitis.
Involvement of the Vascular Endothelium in Uveitis
Hollows Lecture
Prof Jill Keeffe OAM
Centre for Eye Research Australia
AUSTRALIA
Jill completed her PhD on low vision in children in 1992 at the University of Melbourne Department of Ophthalmology where she has been employed since then. She is the Head of the Population Health Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) and Director of CERA’s World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness. She has held positions with the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness and the International Council for Education for People with Visual Impairment.
Professor Keeffe’s research focus is in the epidemiology of vision impairment and its application to prevention of blindness programs in Australia and our region. Recent research is in health services to assist in the establishment of innovative eye care services and assess their outcomes and equity in access in the Asia Pacific region.
Jill was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for “services to public health particularly in the area of vision testing and as a contributor to the advancement of eye care education and practice” in 2007.
Excellence and Equity
Retina Speaker
Dr Wilson Heriot
FRANZCO, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Dr Wilson Heriot is a Principal at Eye Surgery Associates where his clinical practice includes both medical and surgical retina. His initial training at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in the early 80’s was followed by a medical retinal research fellowship in New York with Prof Paul Henkind investigating pigment epithelial phototoxic injury and the initiation of choroidal neovascularisation.
He continued his research on pigment epithelial injury and repair (this time following surgical trauma) during a 2 year vitreo-retinal fellowship with the father of VR surgery, Prof. Robert Machemer. Dr Heriot pioneered the outpatient method for treating sub macular haemorrhage that has been adopted worldwide as standard of care. His other research interests have been the epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy, optimizing management of neovascular AMD (pioneering Avastin therapy prior to the PBS listing of Lucentis) and most recently optimizing laser fusion of retina and choroid to improve treatment of retinal detachment.
He is founding chair of the Oceania Retina Association (ORA), Victorian Chair of the Macular Degeneration Foundation and a board member of the ORIA. He has been a regular invitee for the Vail VR surgery meeting founded by Robert Machemer, a faculty member of the Retina Satellite meetings for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Duke Eye Centre and Cleveland Clinic retinal update courses and an invited speaker at many international meetings. He is a former Head of both the Medical Retina Clinic and the Vitreo-Retinal Unit at the RVEEH and currently consultant retinal surgeon at the RWH and RCH Melbourne.
Update
Cornea and External Diseases
Prof John Dart
Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK
Prof Dart is a Consultant Ophthalmologist in the Corneal & External Disease Service at Moorfields Eye Hospital where he is Deputy Director of Research. He is a member of faculty of the National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre in Ophthalmology, and an Honorary Professor of Ophthalmology at University College London. He trained in Ophthalmology at the Oxford Eye Hospital and at Moorfields and did fellowships at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston and at Flinders University, Adelaide. He was a lecturer at the Institute of Ophthalmology from 1984 to 1989 and appointed Hon. Consultant at Moorfields in 1987. He was appointed to the Consultant Staff at Moorfields in 1989. His research interests are in ocular infections, inflammatory diseases of the anterior segment, and ocular surface disease. He has authored more than 225 publications including over 150 per reviewed papers, 16 chapters and 1 book.
How have advances in Corneal & External Disease altered the Management of Keratoconus?
Glaucoma Speaker
Prof James D. Brandt
UC Davis Eye Centre, California, USA
Prof James D. Brandt, MD, is Professor of Ophthalmology & Vision Science and Director of the Glaucoma Service at the University of California, Davis.
After receiving a BS degree from Yale University and an MD degree from Harvard Medical School, he pursued a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship in glaucoma-related pharmacology and cell biology at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston before starting his residency at the University of Southern California/Doheny Eye Institute. He completed his formal clinical training with a glaucoma fellowship at the Wills Eye Hospital before joining the UC Davis faculty in 1989.
Dr. Brandt’s clinical practice is limited to glaucoma, with a particular focus on infantile and pediatric glaucomas. Dr. Brandt’s research interests are in the material properties of the eye as they affect the measurement of intraocular pressure and in the physiology of outflow resistance. He is currently collaborating with researchers in the fields of nanotechnology and biomedical engineering to develop new methods to measure outflow resistance in the living human eye. Dr. Brandt has served as the Principal Investigator of numerous clinical trials, including the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS). As an OHTS principal investigator, Dr. Brandt initiated the effort to measure corneal thickness as a potential risk factor for glaucoma.
A Decade of Pachymetry – What Have We Learned?
Refractive Surgery
Prof Roger F. Steinert
Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, California, USA
Prof Roger Steinert is currently Chair of the department and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine, where he holds joint appointments as the Irving H. Leopold Professor of Ophthalmology and Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
He combines a consultative practice in cataract, refractive and corneal surgery with teaching and translational laboratory research in these fields. He has authored or co-authored four textbooks, including the definitive text Cataract Surgery, which is in its third edition. He has published over 150 peer-review journal scientific articles and over 90 book chapters. Professor Steinert is a member of the Executive Committee of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) and became President of that society in April 2005, as well as Chair of the Annual Program, a position he currently fills. He serves as Associate Editor of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. He has presented 10 named lectureships, including the 2004 Binkhorst Lecture at ASCRS and the 2008 Barraquer Lecture at AAO. Professor Steinert serves as medical monitor of several FDA trials. He holds seven U.S. and numerous international patents. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and has been selected by his peers for inclusion in every edition of Best Doctors in America and America’s Top Doctors. Ophthalmology Times named him one of the top 100 ophthalmologists in North America.
Professor Steinert earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, having graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College. He served his residency at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and rose through the ranks of the Harvard faculty until being recruited to UC Irvine.
