Melbourne Laureate Professor Emeritus Hugh Taylor was the Harold Mitchell Professor of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne. He was Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne and the Founding Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia from 1990 to 2007. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Institute at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and International Health.
Professor Taylor’s current work focuses on Aboriginal eye health. He has led the efforts to eliminate trachoma in Australia and developed “The Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision”, a blueprint to provide sustainable eye-care services to Indigenous Australians. He has worked with WHO in different roles for over 40 years.
He has written 36 books and reports and more than 800 scientific papers. He has received multiple international awards and prizes and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. In 2001, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.
He is a Past President of the International Council of Ophthalmology, a previous Chairman of Vision 2020 Australia and Vice President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.