Professor David Hunt is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Western Australia. He graduated with a BSc in Zoology in 1964 and a PhD in Genetics in 1967 from the University of Sheffield, UK, where he held an SERC research studentship from 1964 to 1967. His career progressed through a Research Associate position at the MRC Experimental Genetics Unit, Department of Animal Genetics, University College London (1967-1972); Lecturer in Genetics at the University of Glasgow (1972-1974); Lecturer then Senior Lecturer in Genetics at Queen Mary College and Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London (1974-1992); Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics (1992-1994), Reader (1994-1996), and Professor of Molecular Genetics (1996-2007) at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London; and Professorial Fellow there (2007-2010). In 2010, he moved to the University of Western Australia as Winthrop Professor until 2014, thereafter serving as Emeritus Professor.

Professor Hunt's research centers on the molecular genetics of inherited retinal diseases, including identification of disease genes and mutations with functional analysis via mouse and zebrafish models, and comparative studies on the evolution of vision in vertebrates. His work encompasses visual pigment evolution, colour vision defects in humans and primates, and adaptations in marsupials, monotremes, rodents, cetaceans, snakes, birds, lampreys, deep-sea fish, and limbless amphibians. He has produced over 110 research outputs, including the book 'Evolution of Visual and Non-visual Pigments' (2014), and key papers such as 'The Genetic and Evolutionary Drives behind Primate Color Vision' (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2017), 'Visual Pigments, Ocular Filters and the Evolution of Snake Vision' (Royal Society Open Science, 2016), 'Compensatory Cone-Mediated Mechanisms in Inherited Retinal Degeneration Mouse Models' (Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2023), and 'The origins of the full-field flash electroretinogram b-wave' (Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2023). With an h-index of 45 and more than 20,000 citations, his influence is marked by collaborations with Moorfields Eye Hospital and grants from MRC, Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, ARC, and NHMRC. Awards include the Raine Visiting Professorship (2005) and a Visiting Research Fellowship from the University of Melbourne (1983).

Professional Email: david.hunt@uwa.edu.au