
Save Sight Institute’s Professor John McAvoy has been awarded the Kinoshita Lectureship by the National Foundation for Eye Research.
Professor McAvoy is the first Australian, and just the second researcher outside the USA, to receive this prestigious international award for innovative research that contributes to the understanding of the etiology and prevention of cataract development.
The award consists of a plaque and a US$ 15,000 honorarium, and Professor McAvoy will also present the Kinoshita Lecture at the International Conference on the Lens at Kona, Hawaii in January 2012.
Further recognising the important contributions being made in eye research at The University of Sydney, is a new four‐year grant of US$ 200,000 per annum. Awarded by the National Eye Institute of the National Health Institute (NHI) in the USA, the grant will help fund ground‐breaking research by John McAvoy and Frank Lovicu into lens development and cataract.
This sustained funding record is remarkable given the current climate of financial austerity in the USA
The NHI grant marks 33 years of continuous funding for John McAvoy from this prestigious body, which has a policy of funding research outside the USA that is pioneering, innovative and helping to advance the field.
Says Professor McAvoy “This sustained funding record is remarkable given the current climate of financial austerity in the USA. Only a small handful of foreign PIs have achieved such a level of continuous funding and it is a great honour to be part of this elite group.”
For further information contact Renee O’Kane on renee.okane@sydney.edu.au