The University Section of Ophthalmology was initially created as a subdivision of the Department of Surgery in 1968. Dr Hylton LeGrice FRANZCO, OBE was appointed as the foundation Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology in 1970 and shortly afterwards as the Clinical Reader in Ophthalmology, a post he held until 1983. The foundations of the research and academic activities of the department were significantly enhanced when Dr Gillian Clover PhD, FRANZCO was appointed as the first Sir William and Lady Stevenson Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology and Head of Department in 1984 and subsequently the Sir William and Lady Stevenson Associate Professor in 1999. The initial accommodation and staffing were modest with 5-6 staff occupying 3 offices and one research laboratory on the 4th floor of the pathology building on the Medical School campus.
A significant donation by the industrialist and philanthropist Dr Maurice Paykel, augmented by generous support from the local ophthalmic community, the University of Auckland, Auckland Healthcare Ltd and other donors allowed the establishment of the first Foundation Chair of Ophthalmology in New Zealand in 1998. In recognition of his generous support, the Foundation Chair was named The Maurice Paykel Chair of Ophthalmology. Professor Charles McGhee PhD, FRCS, FRCOphth was appointed as the first Maurice Paykel Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology in late 1998 and Dr Trevor Sherwin PhD and Dr Jennifer Craig PhD MCOptom joined the team shortly thereafter. Dr Helen Danesh-Meyer MB, FRANZCO was recruited from a post in the USA, as a Senior Lecturer in mid-2000 and was appointed as the Sir William and Lady Stevenson Associate Professor a year later.
An endowment from the Wendy and Bruce Hadden Trust in 2005 helped establish the W & B Hadden Chair of Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Research. Professor Colin Green PhD, DSc an eminent cell biologist with an international reputation in research into wound healing, particularly in the cornea, is the first recipient of this second chair. The addition of translational vision research to the department brings scientific and clinical aspects of ophthalmology closer by taking laboratory science directly to the clinical setting and bringing clinical questions directly to the laboratory – essentially from “laboratory to bedside”.
Subsequent Senior Lecturer appointments to faculty staff include Dr Andrea Vincent FRANZCO (ocular genetics), Dr Sue Ormonde MD FRCOphth (cornea) and Dr Dipka Patel PhD MRCOphth (anterior segment). Honorary clinical senior lecturer appointments have included Dr Tahira Malik (medical retina), Dr Mark Donaldson (medical retina and glaucoma), Dr David Pendergrast (cornea), Associate Professor Philip Polkinghorne (vitreo-retinal surgery) and Associate Professor Gerard Sutton (cornea). In addition the team now includes two post-doctoral fellows, four technical research staff, five clinical research fellows and a large number of PhD and MD candidates. The department also provides the base for the New Zealand National Eye Bank, Glaucoma New Zealand, and the RANZCO journal – Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.
Overall the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has grown from a handful of staff in 1998 to around 40 staff and research students in 2008. This growth has been associated with the completion of several PhD and MD theses, the generation of approximately $12,000,000 in research funding and the publication of more than 300 research papers and chapters. The Department now occupies an entire floor of the Pathology building on the faculty of Medical and Health Sciences campus in Grafton and contains a number of state of the art laboratories, a large microsurgical facility and extensive teaching and clinical research facilities.
