ProfessorPeter McCluskey

Peter McCluskey is currently Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Eye Health at Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney and is the Director of the Save Sight Institute at Sydney Eye Hospital. He graduated with first class honours from the University of NSW and completed his ophthalmology training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney and the Sydney Eye Hospital. During his Doctor of Medicine post-graduate research training in ocular immunology at UNSW, he completed a fellowship in uveitis at Moorfields Eye Hospital London in 1993-94.

Peter McCluskey is an internationally recognised inflammatory eye disease specialist with more than 30 years experience treating patients with vision threatening inflammatory eye disease. He was at the forefront of administrating and championing breakthrough sight-saving treatments for blinding eye infections associated with HIV infection and he continues work in this area. He runs the largest tertiary referral, public sector uveitis service in Australia, at Sydney Eye Hospital and is involved in clinical research, laboratory research and clinical trials. He has ongoing research collaborations in the United Kingdom, Vietnam and the United States. He and his collaborators have obtained over $4,250,000 in competitive research grant funding. He is an author of more than 250 peer reviewed papers, 24 book chapters, 2 apps and 4 books. His H-index is currently 40.

As Director of the Save Sight Institute, he has oversight of eight core research groups involved in both clinical and basic eye research that encompass the common causes of blindness such as Age-related Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, Cataract and Corneal Disease. Additional research groups target glaucoma, visual pathways, neuro-ophthalmology, genetic eye disease, ocular inflammaton and eye cancer. The Save Sight Institute gained over $4,000,000 in research grant funding in 2018. Under Professor McCluskey’s leadership the Institute is now ranked as equal first in Australia, one of the top five Eye Research Units in the Asia-Pacific region and is ranked sixth in the world.

The Save Sight Institute prioritises training the next generation and in 2018 had over 100 postgraduate students enrolled in its various Masters courses and 26 higher degree research students. Peter McCluskey has been instrumental in establishing a distance learning Masters of International Ophthalmology in Vietnam and supporting a diploma course in other developing Asia-Pacific countries such as the Solomon Islands, the Seychelles and East Timor.

He is a dedicated teacher who has lectured and is a principal invited speaker at conferences around the world. He and his colleagues have run post-graduate courses on inflammatory eye disease in many parts of the world over the last 20 years. He was a major contributor to the Eye Emergency Manual and co-authored the ICO medical students ophthalmology handbook. He is a co-author of the Sydney Eye Hospital ocular pharmacopeia app and of the Eye Emergency app.

Peter McCluskey has received distinguished service awards from APAO, RANZCO and AAO for his teaching contributions. He was the RANZCO Council lecturer in 2000. In 2012, he received the Mark Tso Golden Apple award from the International Council of Ophthalmology and Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology as the outstanding teacher in the Asia Pacific region. In 2015, he was the RANZCO Sir Norman McAllister Gregg lecturer which recognises outstanding contributions to clinical ophthalmology and research. In 2017, he was the Francesco Orzalesi lecturer at the University of Milan which recognises outstanding clinical research in Ophthalmology.