Rate My Professor Alex Hewitt

Professor Alex Hewitt is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, within the College of Health and Medicine. He graduated from the University of Tasmania in 2001 with his medical degree and obtained his PhD from Flinders University of South Australia in 2009, investigating the molecular and phenotypic associations for open-angle glaucoma. Hewitt completed formal ophthalmology training at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne in 2011 and served as Novartis Research Fellow at the Lions Eye Institute in 2012. A Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (FRANZCO), he conducts clinics specialising in inherited eye diseases at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, and Royal Children’s Hospital. Previously Head of the Clinical Genetics Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia, he is now principal investigator at Menzies, leading efforts in precision medicine for eye disorders.

Hewitt’s research focuses on ophthalmic genetics, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, myopia, and gene therapies. He leads the Glaucoma Inheritance Study in Tasmania, creating the world’s largest family biobank of glaucoma with over 2,000 patients and 3,000 relatives, and the Tasmanian Ophthalmic Biobank. His work includes developing genetic risk scores for primary open-angle glaucoma, single-cell RNA sequencing atlases of the human retina, and CRISPR/Cas gene editing applications for inherited retinal diseases, including the first report of viral-mediated editing in the retina. Author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications with more than 35,000 citations and an h-index of 85, notable papers include “Meta-analysis of 542,934 subjects of European ancestry identifies new genes and mechanisms predisposing to refractive error and myopia” (Nature Genetics, 2020), “Genome-wide association study of intraocular pressure uncovers new pathways to glaucoma” (Nature Genetics, 2018), and “Genome engineering in ophthalmology: Application of CRISPR/Cas to the treatment of eye disease” (Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 2016). Awards include the ARVO Cogan Award (2025), NHMRC Research Excellence Awards for top-ranked Practitioner Fellowship (2016) and Program Grant (2018), WA Tall Poppy Award (2012), and an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship. He serves on Retina Australia’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee and has received funding from NHMRC and Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation.