Retina Australia has named the first recipients of two new awards recognising outstanding contributions to inherited retinal disease (IRD) research and care in Australia.
Professor Michael Kalloniatis has been awarded the inaugural 2025 Hall of Fame Award, while Dr Sena Gocuk has received the 2025 Emerging Scientist Award, both honouring their significant impact on the lives of Australians affected by inherited retinal diseases.
The Hall of Fame Award
The Hall of Fame Award recognises Professor Kalloniatis’s sustained contribution to Retina Australia over more than 30 years. An optometrist who received his first Retina Australia research grant of AU$6,000 in 1992, he went on to receive 14 grants between 1992 and 2008 for inherited retinal disease research.
The Hall of Fame Award recognises Professor Kalloniatis’s sustained contribution to Retina Australia over more than 30 years
Throughout his career, Prof Kalloniatis has maintained clinical practice while leading research teams, establishing animal models of retinal dystrophy, and a visual psychophysics laboratory. He has shared his expertise through teaching positions at the Universities of Melbourne, Auckland, New South Wales, Deakin and Houston, and currently serves as a professor in the College of Optometry at the University of Houston, holding adjunct positions at UNSW and Deakin University. Prof Kalloniatis has mentored many students who have been successful in achieving their PhDs in inherited retinal disease-related studies, and who have continued to work in the field.
Prof Kalloniatis was instrumental in establishing the New Zealand National Eye Centre, which opened in 2008, and served as Director of the Centre for Eye Health at UNSW from 2009 to 2022. He has represented Retina Australia internationally at Retina International Scientific meetings from 2010 to 2024 since joining the organisation’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee in 2009.
Accepting the award at Retina Australia’s Annual General Meeting, Professor Kalloniatis said, “I am deeply honoured and humbled to be the inaugural recipient of the Retina Australia Hall of Fame Award. This recognition is a personal milestone and a reflection of the many individuals who have worked alongside me in the laboratory and in the clinic. I share this honour with colleagues, past and present students, and postdoctoral fellows.”
Emerging Scientist Award
Dr Sena Gocuk, an optometrist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) and The University of Melbourne, was selected for the Emerging Scientist Award following an intensive, Australia-wide selection process.
The award recognises Dr Gocuk’s excellence in research, leadership and advocacy, particularly her focus on female carriers of X-linked inherited retinal diseases. She is part of the Retinal Gene Therapy Unit at CERA and the Vision Optimisation Unit in the Department of Optometry of Vision Sciences.
Dr Gocuk is pioneering a groundbreaking 10-year longitudinal study in collaboration with The University of Oxford and Anglia Ruskin University, investigating changes in retinal characteristics among female choroideremia carriers. Her research has earned her the University of Melbourne Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research and the Ezell Fellowship Award from the American Academy of Optometry.
As an advocate for female carriers of X-linked IRDs, Dr Gocuk regularly speaks at conferences, support groups, and meetings to provide research updates and encourage the inclusion of female carriers in upcoming gene therapy interventions.
Reference
Retina Australia Awards 2025. Available at: retinaaustralia.com.au/retina-australia-awards-2025 [accessed October 2025]
