Physician profile
Prof Peter McCluskey AO
Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Eye Health at the University of Sydney, former Director of the Save Sight Institute at Sydney Eye Hospital, and an internationally recognised inflammatory eye disease specialist.
30+
Years experience
250+
Peer-reviewed papers
$4.25M+
Research funding
H-index 40
Research impact
Clinical leadership
Peter McCluskey is an internationally recognised specialist in inflammatory eye disease with more than 30 years of experience treating patients with vision-threatening inflammatory eye disease.
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 was at the forefront of administering and championing breakthrough sight-saving treatments for blinding eye infections associated with HIV infection, and continues work in this area.
Training and fellowships
Professor McCluskey graduated with first class honours from the University of New South Wales and completed 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.
Research and publications
Professor McCluskey has ongoing research collaborations in the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and the United States. He and his collaborators have obtained more than $4,250,000 in competitive research grant funding.
He is an author of more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, 24 book chapters, two apps, and four books.
Save Sight Institute
As Director of the Save Sight Institute, Professor McCluskey had oversight of eight core research groups involved in clinical and basic eye research covering common causes of blindness including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataract, and corneal disease.
Additional research groups targeted glaucoma, visual pathways, neuro-ophthalmology, genetic eye disease, ocular inflammation, and eye cancer.
Under his leadership, the Institute was ranked equal first in Australia, among the top five eye research units in the Asia-Pacific region, and sixth in the world.
Teaching and awards
Professor McCluskey is a dedicated teacher and invited speaker at conferences around the world. He and his colleagues have run post-graduate courses on inflammatory eye disease internationally for more than 20 years.
He has received distinguished service awards from APAO, RANZCO, and AAO for his teaching contributions, and received the Mark Tso Golden Apple Award in 2012 as the outstanding teacher in the Asia-Pacific region.
He was the RANZCO Sir Norman McAllister Gregg lecturer in 2015 and the Francesco Orzalesi lecturer at the University of Milan in 2017.