Professor Ian Constable AO was the recipient of the inaugural Sir Charles Court Inspiring Leadership Award at the 2008 Western Australian Citizen of the Year Awards presentation last night.
Professor Ian Constable AO was the recipient of the inaugural Sir Charles Court Inspiring Leadership Award at the 2008 Western Australian Citizen of the Year Awards presentation last night.
Professor Constable is one of the world's leading ophthalmic surgeons and has been the director of the Lions Eye Institute since 1983 and chairman of the Premier's Science Council, a body established by former premier Geoff Gallop to promote science in Western Australia.
He has always insisted healthy eyesight is the premise of everyone regardless of their financial status and has worked tirelessly to this end, with his work helping to improve the sight of Aboriginal people throughout the state a testament to this.
In 2005, the University of WA celebrated the 30th anniversary of Professor Constable's appointment as the Lions Foundation Chair of Ophthalmology with his appointment coming after five years in Boston in the United States as a Clinical Retinal Fellow at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and lecturer at Harvard University.
Professor Constable established the Lions Eye Institute in Perth in 1983 to address the escalating incidence of blindness from a scientific base. Lions Eye Institute is now the biggest eye research institute in the southern hemisphere with 120 scientists dedicated to investigating, preventing and curing blinding eye disease.
As founding Professor of Ophthalmology, Professor Constable heads the UWA Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science which is based at the Lions Eye Institute. This unique centre combines the expertise of ophthalmologists and researchers from a broad spectrum of scientific fields.
In the past three decades, Professor Constable has developed close links throughout Southeast Asia. He is immediate past-President of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology - an organisation which serves more than half the world's blind. Last year he was appointed as Director of Eye Health Services of WA to advise the Government on policy, training and resourcing issues relating to the provision of public ophthalmic services.
The Sir Charles Court Inspiring Leadership Award is sponsored by the Oswal Group and Radhika Oswal joined the Governor on the stage to present the award to Professor Constable.
The nine Citizen of the Year Awards are sponsored by Burswood Entertainment Complex; Coles Supermarkets WA; Department of Local Government and Regional Development; Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA; St John of God Hospital, Murdoch; Bell-Vista Fruit & Vegetable Company; Prime Health Group; Miss Maud Hospitality Group and partners Edith Cowan University and WA Opera; and Alcoa.
The 2008 awards are proudly supported by The West Australian, Channel 7, GWN, Highway 1, Access 31, Australia Post and Ferngrove Wines and presented by Celebrate WA with the support of the Government of Western Australia and corporate partners Hawaiian, GCS and AHG.
