Professor Colin Willoughby, BSc (Hons), FRCOphth, MD

Professor Colin Willoughby was appointed as Professor of Ophthalmology at Ulster University and an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in January 2018. The main aim of his research is to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of two major worldwide blinding disorders:  corneal blindness and glaucoma.  He has specific interests in developing novel molecular, pharmacological and cellular therapies for glaucoma and anterior segment disease and uses a number of state-of-the-art genomic technologies. 

He attended medical school at the University of Liverpool, qualifying in 1988 with a BSc First Class in Anatomy, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery with Honours (MBChB Hons) in 1991. He commenced ophthalmology clinical training in 1993 in Liverpool and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (FRCOphth) in 1996. Having spent two years in the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, he then became Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Liverpool. He returned to Northern Ireland in 2004 and was a Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology, Queen’s University Belfast.  In 2013 he was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology in the University of Liverpool and an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon in St. Paul’s Eye Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital with a clinical and surgical practice in glaucoma, cornea, genetics and general ophthalmology.

Prof Colin Willoughby is an Editorial Board Member (Glaucoma) for Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.