Project Leader – Preclinical research
Bionic Vision Australia

Director, National Vision Research Institute

Biography 

Currently the Director of the National Vision Research Institute, Professor Michael Ibbotson is also a panel Deputy Chair for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), an OzReader for the Australian Research Council (ARC) and a reviewer for National Science Foundation (NSF) grants. He is also an active member of the Australian Neuroscience Society and the Society for Neuroscience.

In 2006 Professor Ibbotson was appointed to the Head of the Visual Sciences Group at the Australian National University, a highly interdisciplinary research department with an annual research budget in excess of three million dollars, covering topics from the development of clinical tests for eye diseases to arthropod vision. 

Research interests

Professor Ibbotson’s research activities investigate how the brain translates patterns of light received in the eye into complex behaviours. His lab brings together biologists, psychologists and engineers to study biological vision systems and translates this knowledge into the development of biologically inspired engineering solutions.

Contribution to bionic eye project 

Professor Ibbotson’s contribution to the bionic eye project is to assess the efficacy of various stimulating electrode configurations by measuring neural responses in retinal tissue.

Qualifications

PhD (London)

Publications

Professor Ibbotson is a regular reviewer for 11 international journals, including Nature Neuroscience and The Journal of Neuroscience and Current Biology.