Professor Hugh R. Taylor AC is a practising ophthalmologist who has been actively involved in research and teaching for 30 years.

At the beginning of 2008, Professor Taylor was appointed the inaugural Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health in the Melbourne School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne.

Before taking up this appointment, he was the Professor of Ophthalmology and Head of Department at the University of Melbourne from 1990 until 2007, and the Managing Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia which he founded in 1996. Professor Taylor received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1971 and his Doctorate in 1978. He was on the Faculty of the Wilmer Institute at The Johns Hopkins University from 1977 to 1990 and had joint appointments in Epidemiology and International Health.

Professor Taylor’s research interests include blindness prevention strategies, infectious causes of blindness and the growing interface between medicine, public health and health economics.

Professor Taylor has written many books, including a recent publication on trachoma, and contributed more than 500 peer-reviewed papers. He has chaired or served on advisory committees or boards for many organizations, including the World Health Organization, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the River Blindness Foundation, the Fred Hollows Foundation, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the International Council of Ophthalmology and Vision 2020 Australia.

Professor Taylor has received numerous awards including the Paul Harris Award from Rotary International, the Melvin Jones Fellowship from Lions International, the International Blindness Prevention Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Gold Medal from the International Organization against Trachoma. In 2001, he was made a Companion in the Order of Australia for his contributions to the prevention of river blindness, to academia through research and education related to the prevention of eye disease, and to eye health in Indigenous communities. He was a finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards 2005.

Professor Taylor has delivered many named lectures including the Doyne Memorial Lecture (Oxford Ophthalmological Congress), the Jackson Lecture (American Academy of Ophthalmology), the Mildred Weisenfeld Lecture (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, USA), the Lang Lecture (Royal Society of Medicine, London), the Holmes Lecture (Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology), the Council Lecture (Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists), the EA Baker Lecture (Canadian Ophthalmic Society), and the Fred Hollows Memorial Lecture (International Eye Foundation).

He is a member of the International Council of Ophthalmology, was the former Regional Chairman for the Western Pacific for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and Vision 2020, is the newly appointed Vice President of the IAPB, and holds the 53rd Chair of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis.