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Professor Rupert Bourne
Professor Rupert Bourne is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Vision and Eye Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and an internationally recognised ophthalmologist specialising in glaucoma and cataract surgery. He trained at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and subsequently undertook glaucoma fellowships at Moorfields and the Shiley Eye Centre/Hamilton Glaucoma Center in San Diego, USA.
Professor Bourne has more than 20 years’ experience as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon and was Glaucoma Service Lead at Cambridge University Hospitals from 2018 to 2025, where he established and directed the Cambridge Eye Research Centre. He is now in private practice in Cambridge and London while continuing his academic and research work in the UK and internationally. His clinical interests include advanced glaucoma diagnosis and treatment, glaucoma surgery, angle-closure glaucoma and cataract surgery.
His research focuses particularly on glaucoma diagnosis and progression, glaucoma management in the community, ophthalmic epidemiology and global eye health. He has published more than 200 research papers and has been involved in numerous major clinical trials and population-based studies of eye disease. He is also a Principal Collaborator and has played a leading role in the Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study, working with international organisations including the World Health Organization to
improve understanding of the global burden of blindness and vision impairment.
Professor Bourne has held significant national and international research leadership positions, including leading the UK National Institute for Health Research Ophthalmology research programme. He is Chief Investigator of the UK National Eye Health and Hearing Study and continues to contribute extensively to clinical research, education and the advancement of ophthalmic care internationally.
Professor Esen K. Akpek
Professor Esen K. Akpek is Professor of Ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine and Director of the Frances and C. Stephen Foster Center for Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, as well as Chief of the Division of Ocular Immunology at the Duke Eye Center. She is an internationally recognised specialist in cornea, ocular surface disease and ocular immunology, with particular expertise in advanced corneal transplantation, stem cell transplantation, ocular surface reconstruction and inflammatory eye disease.
Professor Akpek completed her medical degree at Hacettepe University in Turkey, followed by ophthalmology residency at Ankara Numune Hospital. She undertook fellowships in Ocular Immunology and Uveitis at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard MedicalSchool, and in Cornea and External Disease at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University.
Prior to joining Duke, Professor Akpek spent more than two decades at Johns Hopkins’ Wilmer Eye Institute, where she was the Bendann Professor of Ophthalmology and Rheumatology and Director of the Ocular Surface Disease and Dry Eye Clinic. She also served as Associate Director of the Jerome L. Greene Sjögren’s Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview.
Her research interests include dry eye disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, ocular surface disorders, corneal transplantation and ocular inflammatory disease. She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, as well as numerous book chapters, reviews and editorials, and has led clinical trials investigating novel treatments and diagnostic approaches for ocular surface disease. She has also contributed to major international initiatives including TFOS DEWS and the International Meibomian Gland Dysfunction Workshop.
Professor Akpek is an active leader in international ophthalmology and ocular immunology and is President of the Foster Ocular Immunology Society. She continues to combine clinical care, research and education, with a particular focus on advancing the understanding and treatment of complex corneal and ocular surface disease.