Specialist Interests: Glaucoma, Cataract Surgery
BSc(Hons) FRCOphth MB BS MD HonFCOptom
Professor Rupert Bourne is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon with 20 years of experience and an international and national expert in glaucoma and cataract surgery. He is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Vision and Eye Research Institute of Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and was Glaucoma Lead at Cambridge University Hospital (2018-2025) where he set up and directed the Cambridge Eye Research Centre.
He is now in private practice in Cambridge and London and continuing his academic work in the UK and internationally. He trained at Moorfields Eye Hospital and undertook two Glaucoma fellowships, one there and another at the Shiley Eye Centre/Hamilton Glaucoma Center in San Diego, California. He has a strong research interest, particularly in advanced techniques of Glaucoma diagnosis and progression and the management of Glaucoma in the community, along with overseas ophthalmology which has involved design and analysis of several large population-based surveys of eye disease, several national in scope. He has published over 200 papers with more than 174,000 citations.
He was Chair of the National Institute for Health Research Ophthalmology Specialty Group, responsible for NHS research delivery 2015-2024 and is now the co-lead for Eastern England. He is the Ophthalmology Clinical improvement co-lead for East of England for NHS England. In his role as Coordinator of the Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study, he has overseen the long-term research into the world-wide prevalence rates of blindness and visual impairment, in partnership with the World Health Organization. He is Chief Investigator for the UK National Eye Health and Hearing Study that began in 2024.
Professor of Ophthalmology, Anglia Ruskin University
Appointed in 2007 to the post of Professor of Ophthalmology, he has a role in developing new avenues of research within the Vision & Eye Research Institute (VERI), which is part of the university’s School of Medicine. He is one of the principal contributors to the university’s Research Excellence Framework submission and plays a key role in leading VERI. He has several research grants for his work there, which includes coordination of the Vision Loss Expert Group that provides the global estimates of vision loss.