About our department

Our teaching and research programmes focus on the clinical, cellular and molecular aspects of the visual system. Ophthalmology offers students an excellent opportunity for training in both clinical Ophthalmology and biomedical vision research.

• The New Zealand National Eye Centre (NZ-NEC) is the culmination of more than eight years of collaboration and planning between many researchers in the field of ophthalmology, optometry, eye health and visual sciences in the University of Auckland.
• The New Zealand National Eye Bank has been based in the Department since 1991.
• The department is home to the administrative office of Glaucoma New Zealand.
• All clinically qualified members of the Department provide clinical expertise to the Auckland District Health Board.

All clinically qualified members of the Department provide clinical expertise to Te Toka Tumai Auckland

The University Section of Ophthalmology was created as a sub-division of the Department of Surgery in 1968. The foundation Clinical Reader was Dr Hylton LeGrice OBE, until Dr Gillian Clover was appointed as the first Sir William and Lady Stevenson Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology in 1983. Dr Clover was appointed to Associate Professor in 2000 and retired from her academic position in 2001.

A significant donation by the industrialist and philanthropist Dr Maurice Paykel, augmented by generous support from the local ophthalmic community and other donors, allowed the establishment of the first Chair of Ophthalmology in New Zealand in 1997. The department expanded significantly in 1998 following the appointment of Professor Charles McGhee as the foundation Maurice Paykel Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology. He relocated from the University of Dundee, Scotland, with several of key staff in 1999.

The ophthalmology team has expanded from a team of 4.5 in 1999 to over 50 staff, research students and honorary staff today. Significant appointments since 1999 include Professor Colin Green (2005), the first recipient of the W & B Hadden Professor of Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Research in 2005. Colin is an eminent cell biologist with an international reputation in research into wound healing particularly the eye, skin and nervous system. Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer was initially appointed as the Sir William and Lady Stephenson Associate Professor in 2001 and thereafter appointed to full Professor in 2008. Professor Danesh-Meyer has an international profile for research in glaucoma and neuro-ophthalmology and provides clinical services in the public and private sectors.