Dr Kathryn Burdon

Dr Burdon completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in both biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Tasmania in 1998. She undertook an honours research year in 1999 looking at the genetics of strabismus (or turned eye) which causes visual impairment in children. In 2000 she received an Australian Postgraduate Award to undertake her PhD in the area of congenital cataract genetics which causes severe visual impairment and blindness in children. Following submission of her thesis in 2003 she travelled to North Carolina, USA, to take up a post-doctoral position at the Human Genomics Centre at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Here she studied the genetics of cardiovascular disease in diabetes. In 2005 she returned to Australia to take up a position in Ophthalmology at Flinders University, where she remains. In 2006 she was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship and in 2010 an NHMRC Career Development Award to further her research.