Professor Justine Smith

Professor Justine Smith is an internationally recognised expert in the causes, effects and treatment of uveitis - inflammation of the eye. Her work extends to infection by parasites and viruses, and ocular cancers.

Through her work, important discoveries on the mechanisms of infectious uveitis have been made, while her laboratory and clinical research have supported the use of biologic drugs to reduce vision loss from non-infectious uveitis.

Professor Smith is a Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor at Flinders University and a Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist at Flinders Medical Centre. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a Chair of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis.

She is a member of the Executive of the International Uveitis Study Group and serves on the Board of the American Uveitis Society. She was 2020-2023 Editor-in-Chief of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, being the first woman ever to lead a Q1 ophthalmology journal.

Professor Smith was named a Superstar of STEM by Science and Technology Australia and is a strong advocate for supporting girls and women to pursue careers in science.

She was recognised in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to ophthalmology and received the 2024 Joanne Angle Service Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the world’s largest eye and vision research organisation.