Vision of Australian aborigines. The distribution of visual acuity and refractive error in Aborigines and the prevalence and causes of blindness

Historical Significance: This is the Doctor of Medicine thesis submitted by Hugh Ringland Taylor, who was to become the Ringland Anderson Professor of Ophthalmology in the University of Melbourne in 1990. He was to build his research career on epidemiological studies of vision and this can be regarded as the first, or one of the first of the studies he pursued. Professor Taylor received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne in 1971 and his MD in 1978. He was on the Faculty (staff) of the Wilmer Institute at The Johns Hopkins University from 1977 to 1990 and had joint appointments in Epidemiology and International Health. He was the Professor of Ophthalmology and Head of Department at the University of Melbourne from 1990, and the Managing Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia, which he founded in 1996. In 2008 he was the inaugural appointee to the Harold Mitchell Professor of Indigenous Eye Health in the University of Melbourne School of Population Health. Professor Taylor's research interests include blindness prevention strategies, infectious causes of blindness and the growing interface between medicine, public health and health economics. Professor Taylor has authored over 500 reseach papers and a number of books. He has chaired or served on advisory committees or boards for many organizations, including the World Health Organization, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the River Blindness Foundation, the Fred Hollows Foundation, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a member of the International Council of Ophthalmology, Vision 2020 Australia, and the Vice President of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. He has received many awards for his work in ophthalmology. In 2001 he was made a Companion in the Order of Australia for his contributions to the prevention of river blindness, to academia through research and education related to the prevention of eye disease, and to eye health in Indigenous communities.