Photograph of Professor Robert Hess PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Research at McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Historical Significance: Professor Hess qualified in optometry at the Queensland Institute of Technology, obtaining his Diploma of Applied Science (Optometry) in 1970. He obtained a Masters degree at the University of Aston in the UK and his PhD degree at the University of Melbourne in 1976, working in the National Vision Research Institute. He then worked at Cambridge University for 14 years the Meres Senior Fellow for Medical Research at St John's College and then as the Wellcome Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physiology. He was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, as Director of Research. He has published prolifically and is renowned for his work on the nature of visual processing in spatial localisation, temporal coding, motion coding and stereopsis and has made singular contributions to unravelling the neural mysteries of amblyopia. His achievements have been widely recognised. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the University of Aston in 1998 and the Edridge-Green Medal for Research in Ophthalmology by the Royal College of Surgeons, London. The Queensland University of Technology has named him as the Chancellor's Outstanding Alumnus for 2003. He was awarded the H Barry Collin Research Medal by the OAA in 2013. See his profile by DE Mitchell in Clin Exp Optom 2014; 97(4).