1. TFOS Ambassadors

Australia

Laura Downie

Professor Laura Downie is a clinician scientist who has gained international recognition for research excellence in ocular disease, with awards, highly cited papers, patents, international speaking engagements and appointments to key professional bodies. She is a Full Professor and Dame Kate Campbell Fellow for research excellence in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. In this role, she heads the ‘Anterior Eye, Clinical Trials and Research Translation Unit', and is Director of the Melbourne Cochrane Eyes and Vision Centre for Evidence-Based Vision Care. She also provides didactic and clinical training to Doctor of Optometry students, and leads the specialty Cornea clinic at Melbourne Eye Care. She also co-directs the FrontTear Research Centre with A/Prof Holly Chinnery, which combines preclinical and clinical approaches to investigate immunological signatures in the mouse and human eye. 
 
Prof Downie’s research combines laboratory, clinical and implementation science as a foundation for improving patient outcomes, particularly in the areas of anterior eye disease and uveitis. She was the first optometrist to be awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) Fellow (2015-7), and has been awarded research funding from a diversity of sources, including the NHMRC (as a current NHMRC Investigator Leadership Grant recipient), Australian Research Council (ARC), Macular Disease Foundation of Australia, Rebecca L Cooper Medical Foundation and industry. 
 
Prof Downie graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Optometry in 2003, and completed her PhD, focusing on vascular, neuronal and glial cell changes in retinopathy of prematurity, at the same institution in 2008. She has undertaken post-graduate training in evidence synthesis and evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford (UK), and completed the Women's Executive Leadership program at the Hass School of Business, UC Berkeley (US). Her research expertise spans ocular biomarkers and diagnostics, evidence-based medicine, clinical trials, systematic reviews, critical appraisal and implementation science. Recently, she co-pioneered Functional In Vivo Confocal Microscopy (Fun-IVCM) imaging, to visualise the dynamics of corneal immune cell subsets in living humans, which has redefined the current conceptualisation of cellular immunology in the human cornea.
 
Prof Downie has authored/co-authored >150 peer-reviewed publications, and achieved international recognition for her research, including as the recipient of prestigious Irvin M and Beatrice Borish Award from the American Academy of Optometry (2014), a Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) Young Investigator Award (2016), the Korb-Exford Dry Eye Career Development Award from the American Optometric Foundation (2019), the David and Valerie Solomon Award from the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (2022) and the Secretariat Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (2020 and 2024). She has served as Chair, as well as a member, on several national and international expert panels, including the TFOS International Dry Eye Work Shop II (DEWS II) and TFOS Lifestyle Workshops, standards committees, industry advisory boards and community and professional committees. She is an Editorial Board member to several journals, including Ophthalmology and Ophthalmology Retina, and is a TFOS Global Ambassador.