Gus Gazzard

Director of Surgery and Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Moorfields Eye Hospital & UCL Professor of Ophthalmology (Glaucoma Studies) at Institute of Ophthalmology UCL & NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK

Why did you decide to pursue ophthalmology/your subspecialty in the first place?

A love of the science of perception – and the surgery is pretty cool too! 

Who is your role model – and why?

Professor David Taylor – a legendary pediatric ophthalmologist at Great Ormond Street. He taught me and so many others that the patient always comes first.

What is your proudest contribution to ophthalmology/your subspecialty?

Changing the treatment of newly diagnosed glaucoma patients and showing that we can prevent visual field loss without medication.

What do you credit most for your success over the course of your career?

Dogged determination to keep going!

What would you like to see change in ophthalmology/your subspecialty over the next 10 years – and why?

I’d love to see wider enrollment into clinical trials so that we are no longer asking, "Why is this patient not in a trial?!"

If you weren't an ophthalmologist, what would you be doing?

Walking the woods in Piemonte. 

If you could restart your career, would you do anything differently? 

Of course! Too many things, but mainly find a mentor earlier.

When you are no longer practicing, what do you want your legacy to be?

My patients.

Do you have any advice for young, aspiring ophthalmologists?

Never stop caring.