Jugnoo Rahi
Bowman Lecture
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.