Professor Jugnoo Rahi
Bowman Lecture: Deciphering childhood vision impairment: stories of population health discovery science
Jugnoo Rahi is a clinician scientist with a track record for innovative discovery science and research translation to reduce the burden and impacts of the causes of blindness that afflict 81 million children worldwide and confer an enormous burden on affected individuals, their families and the societies in which they live.
In 2010 she was appointed the UK’s first Professor of Ophthalmic Epidemiology (joint appointment at University College London’s (UCL) GOS Institute of Child Health and Institute of Ophthalmology) and Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Her work bridges ophthalmology, paediatrics, public health, and population health sciences. This reflects her clinical training in paediatrics and ophthalmology and academic training as an epidemiologist supported by sequential fellowships from the UK’s Medical Research Council.
She leads the Vision and Eyes Group at UCL, an internationally recognised multi-disciplinary and multi-professional group with an unusually broad scientific portfolio. The group’s research looks ‘both ways’: addressing both the causes and the consequences of rare and common eye diseases; alongside investigating the determinants of visual health and well-being and of visual disability. The members of the group have expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics, health psychology, health services research and policy research. Highly cited, research undertaken/led by the group has provided key insights that have shaped clinical care and policies internationally, for example guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Much of this research has been undertaken through novel and enduring collaborative clinical research networks of more than 200 UK paediatric ophthalmology clinicians – these are unique to the UK and have enabled landmark studies to be undertaken and their findings implemented at pace, also providing a model for national paediatric ophthalmology research.
The impact of her research stretches beyond ophthalmology, and she is the recipient of the UK’s two most prestigious awards for biomedical scientists: NIHR’s Senior Investigator award and the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences – both as the first paediatric ophthalmologist and ophthalmic epidemiologist. In 2023 she was elected to the Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Jugnoo has contributed to advancing paediatric ophthalmology and eyes and vision research and more broadly through various roles in the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and the British and Irish Paediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Association (BIPOSA), as well roles in the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, various UK Department of Health and Social Care, NICE and WHO working groups. She has also held a number of academic leadership roles within academic institutions and contributed to research funding committees including the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). She instigated and secured funds for the David Owen Ulverscroft Prize awarded annually by the College for the best paper in paediatric eyes and vision, and the BIPSOA Claud Worth Rising Star Award and Lecture and its Research Training Award, enhancing recognition of paediatric vision and eyes research.
She has strong record in developing people, including as a formal mentor, and in improving representation within research and within institutions/organisations in academia and the NHS. She was selected (one of 16 across all specialities) for the peer-nominated British Medical Association’s inaugural Women in Academic Medicine Role Model award. She received the inaugural pan-sector VISIONUK Astbury Award for career-long partnership with voluntary organisations, improving collaboration and public understanding of science. She has featured in European Vision Institute’s PowerList and The Ophthalmologist’s Top 100 Powerlist. She was awarded the Claud Worth Medal and Lecture in 2024 by BIPOSA and delivered the GOS Institute of Child Health UCL Otto Wolff Lecture in 2025.
Professor Conor Murphy
Edridge Green Lecture
Professor Conor Murphy is the Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences and a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin. He received his medical degree from University College Dublin in 1996 and this was followed by a Masters in Physiology (1998) and a PhD in Ocular Immunology (2005). He undertook his clinical training in Dublin, Bristol, Liverpool and Perth, returning to Ireland to take up his current role in 2009. He has a special interest in cornea, external eye disease and uveitis.
Professor Murphy is the clinical lead of the Ocular Immunology Research Group at RCSI, has published more than 100 articles in the peer-reviewed literature and has supervised four PhD degrees, three MD degrees and many research Masters degrees. His research focuses on identifying novel regulators of inflammatory responses, particularly in the fields of graft versus host disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, uveitis and corneal transplantation. In his role as the postgraduate Professor of Ophthalmology in Ireland, he is the Chief Examiner of the MRCSI (Ophth) and FRCSI (Ophth) professional examinations. His past clinical leadership roles at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital include Medical Director (2013-16), Chair of the Medical Board (2019), Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology (2018-19) and Director of Education and Research (2010-13). He was a member of the board of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and Chair of the Governance and Risk Committee from 2017-20. Professor Murphy is the Irish representative of the European University Professors of Ophthalmology Council. He is a member of the Council of the Irish College of Ophthalmologists (ICO) and the academic representative on the ICO Training Committee. He is a member of the advisory committee of the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE) and is assistant editor of BMJ Open Ophthalmology.