Matthew Burton is Professor of International Eye Health and a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow based at the International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He leads a large international research group of clinicians and scientists, working to improve eye health in low and middle-income countries.
He is the Director of the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium, funded by the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust. The Consortium supports public health and research capacity development, sub-specialist ophthalmology training, health systems strengthening and technology development for eye health professionals.
He is an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist in Cornea & External Eye Disease at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, where he specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of microbial keratitis.
Matthew qualified in medicine from Cambridge University. His post-graduate training was in Oxford and at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. He joined the International Centre for Eye Health in 2000. He was based at the MRC Laboratories, The Gambia (2001-2003), whilst doing his PhD, for which he received the LSHTM’s Woodruff Medal. After the completion of specialist training he spent four years at KCMC Hospital, Moshi, Tanzania (2008-2012), where he established new trachoma research programmes in Tanzania and Ethiopia, which was funded through a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship. Wellcome have continued to support Matthew’s trachoma research (2013-2018) through a Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science and more recently through a Collaborative Award (2017-2022). Recently his Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship was renewed for a further five years (2018-2023), for research on corneal infection in Uganda, Tanzania and Nepal.
Matthew teaches on the MSc in Public Health for Eye Care and the East African Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene in Tanzania. He is also involved in the development of free online courses for eye health.
Professor Burton leads a group of more sixty research clinicians, epidemiologists, laboratory scientists and research assistants, working closely with academic partners in five countries. His main research focus is blinding eye infection (trachoma and corneal infection); in addition, he works on ocular surface squamous neoplasia, glaucoma, eye disease surveys and technology development. Clinical trials form a central component of the groups work.
Professor Mathew Burton will deliver the 50th Anniversary President’s Lecture of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria in Calabar, Nigeria.
