Photographs of Professor Brian Brown

Historical Significance: Brian Brown (1943 - ) played an outstanding role in developing research capability and research programs at two optometry schools. This was at the Queensland University of Technology(1983-1990) and the Kong Kong Polytechnic University (1990-1997), He made a substantial research contribution of his own through some 178 research publications across a very diverse range of topics. He was a key driver of the emergence of research capability in optometry in the second half of the 20thC. (See Cat No 1654). Brian Brown graduated in optometry at the University of Melbourne in 1965 with the degree of BAppSc from the University and the Licentiate of Optometric Science from the Victorian College of Optometry. He completed a master's degree (1969) and a PhD degree (1971) at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Barry Cole. He was the first full-time PhD student to complete a PhD in optometry at the University of Melbourne. A Leverhulme Research Fellowship took him to the City University, London. He later worked as a senior Research Assistant in the Department of Psychology at Nottingham University (1972-73) and as a senior scientist at the Smith Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciences in San Francisco (1973-1983). He took a leadership role in developing research activity in the Department of Optometry at the Queensland University of Technology (1983-1990) and then in the Department of Optometry at the Kong Kong Polytechnic University, where he was promoted to Professor in 1995. He took early retirement from academic employment in 1996 to be a R&D consultant in vision and adjunct professor at the QUT.